Frozen
by UnitedWeStand231
Summary: A rewrite of the Starcraft 2: Heart of the Swarm campaign that turns from the storyline during the escape from the research center. Raynor and Kerrigan escape together only to be forced to crash land on a frozen planet controlled by the Dominion. Amidst enemies on all sides and a world that seems out to kill them, how will they survive much less spend the time together they want?
1. Prologue (Socket with original story)

Frozen

_Author's Note: This is mostly just the buildup from the opening Heart of the Swarm missions/cinematics to get a good ground to build off before I launch into the actual story. Also a good way to practice getting back into the swing of writing (It's been a while). I promise I have no intention of simply putting the campaign into words since that's boring. So again, this is just a starting point hence: prologue. Reviews/Critics are more than welcome as the story progresses (or even now if I've already screwed up). Thanks in advance :)_

_PS: If you don't wanna bother with reading through the opening cinematics, feel free to skip to the next two chapters. Chapter 1 handles the actual escape and chapter 2 begins the new story._

Prologue:

Location:  
Umojan Protectorate  
Remote Planetoid XT39323

Research Station EB-103

_Whirr, click click, whirr_. A woman's lithe body stirred as she rolled over, the now-familiar sounds of the machinery waking up pulling her from the half-slumber that she had fallen into since the last test.  
"Damn machines…" Sarah Kerrigan muttered to herself as she sat up from the not-quite-comfortable "bed" that her current accommodations provided her, working the kinks out of her back. The machines descended and she raised her arms to allow the various appendages to attach and do their work. She shuddered as the metal appendages bring forth half-remembered memories from a time where she became something other than herself, a time her mind was trying hard to repress.

She heard the sound of muffled voices, a deep gravelly voice penetrating the thick walls. Even if she can't make out the words she recognized the voice. Jim. Probably protesting some form of treatment slated for her next as he always was. _The overprotective fool…_ she thought to herself but with a small smile she only shows when he's around. The metal appendages pulled back, finishing their latest battery of tests and medication and she shrugged her shoulders as they released, finishing her loosening up exercise. The main doors opened up, revealing a crowd of scientists and two others that stand out like sore thumbs, a solidly built man with grey in his beard and a much younger blonde man with a ceremonial sword attached to his waist. Jim Raynor and Valerian Mensk. Even with the doors open, the force field around the room doesn't drop for a moment. _Still can't trust me…guess I can't blame them, _splintered images flash before her eyes. No true memories but more of a sense of horrible things that had happened, with her at the center.

"Make the most outta this test. It's your last one." Raynor said. His tone broke no argument from the much younger, blonde haired man. Valerian Mensk, the son of the man who caused Kerrigan's initial transformation and the hell that followed, was now helping Raynor and Kerrigan in a bid to further his own agenda. But to Raynor, "Junior" was simply a means to an end, with that end being reunited with his Sarah. A symbiotic relationship with the son of his enemy if you would. "Now give us a moment." Raynor told Valerian.  
"Very well." Valerian nodded and the crowd dispersed, leaving the two of them alone. Or as alone as they can be in a guarded research lab.  
"We're getting out of here tonight, darling. Just you and me." Raynor says.  
"Good. Then we can go after Mensk." Kerrigan replied, absentmindedly repairing a destroyed piece of machinery on the ground.  
"Now don't be talking like that. I moved heaven and earth to bring you back and I'm not going to watch you throw that all away for vengeance!" Raynor slammed his fist against the force field, his voice rising.

Kerrigan turned her back and closed her eyes. "That's not the point. He's the cause of all this. Until he's taken care of he'll keep coming after me. After us."

"Then let us do this correctly. Reconnect with the Raiders and build up a force. Take the fight to him after his support is gone. Don't just rush headlong into a fight you can't come out of alive. His death is not what we need. It's not what I want if it means you won't be with me. I never gave up on you, so you don't give up on us!"

The doors started coming down as a mechanical voice announced the beginning of the next battery of tests. Kerrigan turned and locked eyes with Raynor as the doors closed with a bang, his pained expression barely hidden under a layer of gruff. She walked forward and placed her hand against the force field, a pained expression filling her own eyes before they started glowing orange as she channeled her psionic powers.

A few minutes later Raynor was at the mess hall but looked up from the tray he was carrying as alerts sounded throughout the base. ZERG IN THE BASE. SEALING OFF ALL LOWER LEVELS. "What the hell?" the curse slipped out of Raynor's mouth as the facility was rocked by small explosions. He dropped the tray holding his lunch as he sprinted down the hall, past his quarters and into the armory. Once inside Raynor made a beeline for a black CMC-400 powered combat suit that stood out from the other white suits set up in the row. He climbed inside and the suit began its start up procedure, sealing its occupant inside. Raynor picked up a C-14 Gauss rifle from the rack and rammed a full clip of ammo into its feed while packing a few more into storage compartments in his suit before rushing back out the door and towards the source of the alarms.

A short time later Raynor arrived in the testing chamber over-watch area, where Valerian was frantically barking orders. "Evacuate the lower levels! Release the security bots and power up the enforcer. Get the Zerg under control!"

"Having trouble there, Junior?" Raynor asks as he steps up to the monitors. "Wasn't your most recent test supposed to be testing her ability to control Zerg in a 'controlled environment?' What happened to that control?"

Valerian looked over at Raynor, a look of annoyance on his face. "It was going to be controlled until Sarah decided to not play along."

"She never did play nice with others. Still remember the first time we met…" Raynor chuckled at the memory of how the two of them had been at odds soon after Raynor joined the Sons of Korhal.

"This is no laughing matter Jim." Valerian snapped, bringing the older man back to reality. "She's released a horde of Zerglings throughout the lower area. Who knows what kind of casualties she'll inflict."

"None, knowing my girl. Property damage sure. And a lot of it. But check your records and I bet no one has been seriously hurt by the Zerg under her control. She never was that kind of gal." Kerrigan's voice suddenly came through the speakers.

"Do you understand now, Valerian? You can't control the Zerg. I'll send them back to their pens but next time I suggest you not test your luck."

Valerian sighed. "I understand. I appreciate your…lesson." His expression showing annoyance as Jim simply grinned. "Well, I guess she made her point. I believe this serves as a…valid stopping point for the tests. Anything further and we might bite off more than we can chew."

Jim nodded agreement, "Good thing we're leaving tonight then, isn't it?" he taunted as he headed out of the command room. He only made it half way back to his quarters before another alarm was set off. "Damn it Sarah, now what have you done?"

PROXIMITY ALERT. ENEMY SHIPS CLOSING ON FACILITY. ALL UMOJAN PERSONAL TO DESIGNATED AREAS.

_Damn it. Already? They move quick… _Jim cursed himself for not getting Kerrigan out of there sooner as he spun around to head back to the command center.

WARNING. DOMINION FORCES IN SECTORS 3, 4, AND 6

"Sarah…" Jim changed course again and sprinted off towards Sarah's quarters. Or holding cell to be more accurate. He heard gunfire from just ahead and doubled his speed, moving as quickly as the bulky suit will let him but still arriving a second too late, watching with dread as the door to Kerrigan's chamber inches closed behind a team of Dominion soldiers, a Ghost in the lead. He fires a few shots in desperation but none of them penetrate the blast doors and it closed shut with a thud. In a fury he crashed his shoulder against the metal as it locked closed.

From within Raynor heard screams and sparks began arcing from the door. "Sarah!" The door buckled as a shockwave radiated out from the room, knocking Raynor onto his back as smoke and debris filtered through the now cracked open doorway. Coughing, Raynor climbed back to his feet and lifted the top half of the now destroyed door up enough to let him through. He makes his way through the room filled with hanging wires, still sparking from random energy surges until he reached Kerrigan, standing in the middle of a burn ring with the Dominion soldiers spread out against the walls, all dead.

"The killing will never stop…until Mensk is dead." Kerrigan said, sensing Jim entering the area. "I'm going to make. Him. Pay," she said, cutting each word short.

Raynor grabbed her arm with a hand and turned her toward him. "That's enough of that. Get it together darling." The enemy Ghost's radio crackled to life and a feminine voice came across the line.

"Bravo team, come in…" a slight pause. "Bravo team, respond…" another pause. "All teams to sector 6. Go Go Go."

Raynor walked over to the now dead Ghost and picked up his C-20A canister rifle, tossing it to Kerrigan. "Time to go."

Kerrigan checked the rifle over, the old, ingrained muscle movements coming to mind as she removeed the magazine and checked on the ammo before putting it back in and loading a round into the chamber. "Been a long time…" she muttered, mostly to herself.

Raynor moved to the door and lifted it up for Kerrigan to go through. "Like riding a bike." As Kerrigan passed through the door directly in front of Raynor, she looked directly into his eyes before pulling him down by the collar of his suit and planting a long awaited kiss onto his lips.

"Yep. Like riding a bike." She said with a grin before passing through the doorway. Raynor smiled back and stepped through himself, letting the doorway slam shut behind him.


	2. Escape

_Author's Note: And here's where the story comes into its own. I wanted the two of them to be able to struggle against things together instead of having to trade off rescuing each other constantly. Let me know what you think :)_

**Chapter 1**

**Escape  
**

Kerrigan stumbled as yet another explosion rocked the research center. Raynor reached out an armored hand to steady her but she waved it off angrily. "I'm ok Jim, just keep your eyes on the front." Raynor nodded and returned his attention to scanning for any more Dominion patrols. The path they had thus far taken from Kerrigan's chamber was littered with multiple suits of now soulless red armor, some with bullet holes riddling the faceplate while others looked to have been almost ripped apart from an explosion.

Raynor turned a corner with his rifle pointed out in front of him, scanning for any threats before he waved Kerrigan through and the two of them continued making their way towards Raynor's dropship. Suddenly four Dominion marines and a Ghost came around the next corner at a run, not bothering to clear corners like trained soldiers should have been. The squad appeared to be in a hurry to get somewhere and didn't notice the two figures directly in front of them for a few seconds. That time was all it took for Raynor and Kerrigan to unload their weapons into them and put them all down. Raynor stepped forward to confirm their deaths as Kerrigan kneeled down to rifle through the Ghost's vest and collect as much ammo for her rifle as she could. "We're going to be running short on ammo here pretty quick if we don't find a resupply soon," she mentions to Raynor.

"It's just gotta last us to the dropship, darling. That's all." Raynor responded, pulling a mostly full clip from one of the marine's rifles to add to his own stockpile. "If they keep coming like this, we shouldn't have much of a problem."

"That's something that bothers me actually. They were running that's for sure, but were they running to something? Or away from it?" Kerrigan looks up from the dead Ghost as a rumbling passes through the floor, various screams and clicking noises bouncing off the walls from where the Dominion squad had appeared.

"I think you just got your answer sweetheart. Time to move!" Raynor called as he half pulled Kerrigan back to her feet and back down the corridor. The noises continuously got closer and the rumbling louder, the two of them seeming to barely stay one turn ahead. The pair turned a final corner and Raynor spotted a door. Without a word he triggered the opening mechanism and snagged Kerrigan as she started to run past, pulling her into the room with him before shutting the door behind them.

Outside the door the pounding of many feet got louder and louder until it was right outside their door and past, the calls of the creatures making an eerie noise similar to that of a human scream. As the noises finally faded into the distance Raynor turned to Kerrigan with a reassuring smile that quickly faded as he saw her face, sweaty and ashen. "Sarah, what's wrong?" he asked, concern in his voice.

"It was me. They could sense me and they were coming for me. Calling out to me." She looked Raynor in the eyes. "They remember me. I think…I think those were the Zerg I created and wrecked the lower areas with. When I broke the connection they lost their leader since I never provided them a queen and now they're searching for their purpose again." She shuddered. "I won't go back to that. I won't become the Queen of the Zerg again. I don't want to lose myself after I just returned."

Raynor wrapped his armored arms around her, careful not to use too much of the suit's additional strength. "As long as I'm here, you won't have to. I promise." He grinned down at her. "And you know I always keep my promises." Kerrigan managed a smile in return and Raynor turned to open the door but was stopped by his radio.

"Commander, we have a problem." The captain of Raynor's flag ship, Matt Horner, called. "The Hyperion is taking heavy damage and we can't stay much longer. We've recovered as many evacuees as we could, including Valerian, but we can't stay much longer. You need to get out of there immediately." Raynor heard explosions over Matt's voice and muted commands being called.

Raynor clicked his radio transmitter on. "No can do. We're still a ways out from our transport. Get yourselves out of here we'll meet up with you later."

"But sir…" Matt tried to object but Raynor overrode him.

"No buts. Its men like you that will bring this revolution about in the end so we need you to keep as many alive as possible. Don't worry about us, we've been in tighter spots before and gotten out alive. With a few more grey hairs sure but that's not the point."

Raynor heard Matt's sigh over the open line. "Very well sir. Transmitting coordinates for warp jump now. We'll be waiting." Raynor's suit beeped signifying receipt of the coordinates and Raynor nodded.

"Happy flying, son." Raynor broke the line and smiled to Kerrigan before sticking his head out of the doorway to check that the way was clear. Without any Dominion or Zerg in sight, Raynor motioned to Kerrigan and they began trotting towards the hanger again. The two of them managed only two corridors before the rumbling began again, but this time there was no other corridor to cut down. Raynor pulled Kerrigan down behind a bulkhead and wrapped her in his arms. If the Zerg wanted her they were going to have to pry her from the mechanical clutches of his power armor first.

Kerrigan sighed and pushed Raynor back. "I've got this one, sweetheart," she said as she stood back up and her eyes began to glow orange. Suddenly the corridors to their left and right were filled with rushing Zerglings, Hydralisks, and Roaches but not a single one of them seemed to notice the two, not even Kerrigan who was obviously using her psionic powers. After about 15 seconds the two groups of Zerg passed them and Kerrigan's eyes returned to normal.

Raynor looked at her, puzzled. "What the devil did you just do?" he asked quizzically.

"I masked our presence. Made the Zerg think that nothing was here and so they kept going, searching for anything to kill most likely."

"Just how many of these things did you make down here?"

"Yeah…I may have gone a little overboard with making my point." Kerrigan sheepishly responded. Raynor grinned in spite of himself. _What a girl_. They picked up where they had left off and continued their run to the hanger, finally arriving just as a squad of Umojan marines were knocked flat on their backs by a large Dominion mech.

Raynor rushed over to one of the downed Umojans and helped the soldier to his feet. "What the hell is that?"

The marine shrugged. "We don't know but it's doing its best to prevent anyone from taking off. We're under orders to keep it from destroying anything but without more firepower we're having trouble just keeping it from wiping us out."

Raynor chuckled. "It's your lucky day, son. Firepower has arrived." He glanced over towards Kerrigan and the soldier's eyes followed, only to almost pop out of his head at the sight.

"Isn't she supposed to be locked up? What's she doing lose?" The soldier backed up quickly, half bringing his weapon to bear.

Raynor intercepted the soldier's weapon before it reached chest level. "Easy there, boy. She's on our side, and it'd be a good idea for you to remember that. If you ever forget that, she might not be anymore." Kerrigan simply smiled and then began walking out towards the mech. Raynor shot one more look at the soldier to make sure he wasn't going to do anything stupid and then grinned reassuringly. "Just leave it to us. Get your marines to keep enemy reinforcements off our back and we'll all get out of here alive."

Raynor followed Kerrigan out into the open, where the mech finally spotted the two of them and brought its chain guns to bear on them, opening fire without so much as an introduction. Raynor and Kerrigan dived in opposite directions as the rapidly firing weapon chunked holes out of the ground between them. Kerrigan wound up behind a downed I-Beam and Raynor was behind a flipped over Siege Tank. The mech began walking towards them, the loud thuds from its metallic feet echoing throughout the chamber, even over the sounds of the small arms fire coming from the next room over. Raynor looked around for an advantage and saw a humongous vent fan hanging precariously from the ceiling, the mounts rocked out of position and barely hanging on by its main wire bundle in the middle. He motioned towards Kerrigan and pointed out the hanging machinery, miming a falling action. She nodded and raised her rifle to her shoulder, sighting down the scope. Raynor nodded and repositioned himself so he was a few steps further back before diving out into the open and firing a few rounds into the mech. "Come and get me you son of a bitch!" he called as he sprinted for the other side of the hanger, diving down behind a buckle in the metal plating of the floor as the mech's chain gun opened fire once again, the bullets passing precariously close to his head.

"Sarah! Now!" he called out and a single shot rang out, passing through the mesh of wires attached to the fan, shredding many and leaving only a few still intact. For an agonizing moment Raynor feared the remaining wires would hold but one by one they began to fail as the weight of the machinery pulled on them and they snapped, dropping the industrial sized fan onto the head of the mech, overloading its balance programming and forcing it down to the ground, struggling beneath the weight. Amidst the cheers coming from Umojan soldiers now rushing to their own dropships, Raynor calmly walked over and looked in the cockpit of the downed mech and saw an unconscious pilot, blood seeping from his head from impacting on the dash but he seemed otherwise unharmed. Raynor nodded and walked over to Kerrigan. "Great shootin' sweetheart. Now let's hightail it outta here and meet up with the Hyperion."

They made their way over to a black dropship with a Raynor's Raiders logo painted on the side and Raynor motioned for Kerrigan to precede him onto the ship. She smiled and climbed up the ladder first, pausing at the top to look back down at Raynor who was looking up the ladder. "Pig. You just wanted a good look at my ass. I am a telepath you know."

Raynor just smiled. "Can't blame a man for trying. Now hurry up before we both die of old age."

"Speak for yourself, old man." Kerrigan said fondly as she climbed on into the dropship and promptly took the pilot's seat, getting the engines ready to go.  
Raynor set his suit up in the cargo area before triggering the exit mechanism, slowly climbing out of his armor as the ship powered up. Once fully freed he sat himself down in the navigator's chair and looked over at Kerrigan. "You sure you remember how to fly this thing?"

"It's like riding a bike." Kerrigan responded without looking at him, hiding the small smile that played across her face. Raynor chuckled and settled himself in, plugging the transmitted coordinates into the ship's computer. The engines roared to life as pieces of the hanger began dropping from the ceiling and Kerrigan piloted the ship up and into launch position before feeding more power to the engines, leading the charge as several Umojan drop ships followed her out of the collapsing hanger. A few ships were too slow to start, however, and were crushed under the falling debris, sending smoke and screams up into the air as Umojan personal were killed.

Kerrigan kept her focus on flying through falling objects and finally broke out into open air space where the full scale of the assault was finally revealed. The research facility looked like a pincushion from all the drop pods sticking out of it and the hammerhead shapes of the battleships floating overhead almost filled the skyline. Kerrigan and the Umojan dropships kept as far away from the battleships and their anti-air weapons as possible but the Dominion ships launched Vikings to intercept the weaponless dropships and they were forced to turn tail and burn for orbit as fast as they could, trying to climb out into space so they could trigger their warp drives and escape the destruction.

An Umojan pilot's face popped up on the communication screen in Raynor's dropship and Raynor took the call. "We're going to draw them off of you, commander. We may not be of the same nationality but you're the one man that can deal with the oppressive Dominion and free us all from its threat," the pilot said before cutting off communications without giving Raynor a chance to say anything in response. The various Umojan dropships broke off from tailing Raynor's ship and the chasing Vikings split their forces, letting Raynor's dropship have to deal with less incoming enemy fire. Kerrigan's focus on piloting never wavered as she piloted through missiles and other debris, managing to make orbit without taking more than a scratch.

"Hitting the switch. Hold on to your hats." Raynor said as he punched the jump button and the ship hopped into warp, pulling away from the fire and smoke of the ruined research laboratory. Looking over at Kerrigan, sitting back in the seat and breathing heavily, Raynor couldn't help but feel like maybe, just maybe, things were going to go just right for them. Just this once.


	3. Crash

_Authors note: And here we go (finally) with true original content. Remember, this is an alternate storyline for HoTS so don't be expecting something that happened there to occur here as well. As usual: Enjoy and lemme know what ya think :)_

**Chapter 2**

**Crash**

_BEEP BEEP BEEP. _The reminder tones trigger as the dropship nears time to drop out of warp. Kerrigan and Raynor release from their most recent kiss with a sigh. "Duty calls." Raynor says as he settles back into the navigator's seat and Kerrigan pulls up her control monitors. "Dropping warp in 5…4…3…2…1…Drop" Raynor tones, as the ship warp engines die down and they return to normal space.

The ship began blaring warnings as soon as they dropped out of warp. What they saw in front of them was something out of a nightmare. A humongous Leviathan stands a few kilometers away from the Hyperion as hordes of Mutalisks and Corrupters swarm around a lone Terran battleship. Fire was coming through holes in the armor of the great ship and only half of the weapons were still firing. Raynor's communication screen suddenly opened up as they were hailed by the Hyperion, revealing a fuzzy picture with broken sound.  
"Commander!" Matt's scrambled voice came over the communications channel. "We were attacked while our warpdrive was recharging and it just came back online a few minutes ago. We waited as long as we could for you to show up but there's only so much damage we can take. There's no way you'd be able to dock with us through this swarm so we're transferring new warp coordinates. Meet us there and we'll dock then." Matt's image faded from the screen and was replaced with a new set of coordinates just before the great battleship disappeared into warp and away from the swarm.

Without their main target the organic fliers turned their attention to the lone dropship, their screams of rage almost palpable even through the airless void. "Time to go, Sarah." Raynor said as he punched the coordinates into the computer once more. Kerrigan began to warm up the warp engines again but it became apparent the horde would make it to them before they were fully revved up.

"Brace yourself Jim. We're going into evasive maneuvers." Kerrigan said as she took the dropship into a nosedive, followed quickly by the swarm. Glaive wurms began sliding past the ship as they launched from max range but it was only a matter of time before they got within range to launch more and more of them. Kerrigan jimmied controls, took the ship through spirals, and dodged through gaps in the enemies, trying to stay ahead of the damage until he warp engines were ready to go. The ship began to shudder from impacts as glaive wurms began to burrow into the hull of the ship, doing as much damage as possible before they expired.

Raynor hit a switch that released safety straps from the chairs around both he and Kerrigan to hold them in place as the rocking became more and more violent. Kerrigan continued her dizzying maneuvers of the ship but the sheer amount of enemy fire caused serious damage to their hull. Sparks began flying out from severed wires and computer screens, equipment stopped working and even one of the engines got knocked out, sending them into a spiral through space. Kerrigan managed to correct their course just as the nav console beeped, signaling that the warp engine was finally ready to go. Kerrigan hit the trigger on the engines and space began to expand but before they managed to jump the ship was sent into a spiral as a Corrupter landed a shot directly into the navigation control. The dropship disappeared into warp space but with a smoking hull and almost no power remaining.

Raynor and Kerrigan looked at each other and smiled, the only light in the cockpit the sparks from the broken equipment. The ship suddenly shuddered and drops out of warp, as one of the sensors, one of the few remaining systems working, begins to spout its proximity warning. They hadn't made it to their assigned coordinates. Instead they were a few thousand kilometers above a planet and trapped in its gravity field and falling fast. Kerrigan dived for the controls as Raynor braced himself in his chair, trying to keep from tumbling about as the ship spun through the planet's upper atmosphere.

Kerrigan scanned her eyes across the console, looking for what had power and what didn't. One engine was totally fried and the other was severely weakened. Push it too hard and it might just fail completely. That left maneuvering thrusters which she only had control over the ones on the front of the ship, directly around the cockpit. "Shit…" she let out a curse as the ship continued its crash course without any real way to control it. Kerrigan hit on an idea, she didn't need to stop the descent, simply slow it. She powered up the maneuvering thrusters and spent a few sweaty minutes controlling their spin. After serious amounts of micromanagement of the thrusters she managed to get the craft's crazy spin under control, leaving them in a powerless dive straight towards the planet's surface. She triggered the one remaining engine and used maneuvering thrusters to balance out the unequal amounts of thrust the single engine provided and brought the nose up out of a straight dive and into a glide. _Still too fast…_she used all forward thrusters that she had left to attempt to slow their speed but it simply wasn't enough. With another curse she slammed the engine to full reverse and the ship bucked and stalled, dropping speed rapidly.

With a stutter and a cough the final engine died and they were left in free fall but by now they were only a few hundred meters above ground and heading towards what appeared to be snowdrifts. The sensors dinged a few times but Kerrigan's concentration on the thrusters was so intense she didn't notice them at all. As the ship reached 10 meters above ground level even the maneuvering thrusters cut out, leaving the ship uncontrollable and it hit the ground hard, the heavily damaged craft melting through the snow as it slowly ground to a halt in the middle of a bare snowfield, the two occupants sitting strapped into their chairs and not moving.

Raynor coughed as he slowly regained consciousness. A falling piece of equipment, a monitor of some sort, had connected with his head and knocked him out. He decided it was probably the cold that had finally awoken him. _Wait…cold? This is a spaceship it shouldn't be able to get cold that easily._ He did a quick damage assessment and concluded that besides the obvious that the ship was trashed, it appeared to be leaking its atmosphere, and therefore letting the outside conditions in, dropping the temp of the interior. He sat up and released the safety straps around his chest, reaching over to grab a console to pull himself up out of the chair and accidentally triggered the sensors, the trusty machine still working amid all the other damage and chaos. The screen powered up and bathed the interior of the cockpit in a soft, blue light, revealing Kerrigan collapsed over the forward console.

"Sarah!" Raynor carefully stepped across the debris until he reached her, relieved to discover that she was still alive and breathing, just woozy. As he helped her sit up she moaned and grabbed her head, presumably where something hard had struck her like it had Raynor. "You ok, darling?"

Sarah nodded, and immediately regretted it as the pounding inside her head doubled. "I will be anyways. What happened?" Raynor looked out the front windows and could almost watch as ice built up over the glass pane. Wherever they had ended up, it was astonishingly cold. He reached over and pulled up the sensor data, trying to locate their position but without full functionality all the sensors could reveal were conditions immediately outside the ship.

"Wherever the hell we ended up, it sure isn't friendly. It's -70 degrees outside with a killer windchill." Raynor backed up the sensors logs to see what it had caught during their descent. "It appears that there's a Terran settlement on the other side of this mountain, about 30 kilometers away. Colder than a corpse and it'll turn you into one without much thought but we should be able to make it. If we're going out, we're gonna need protection." Raynor walked back into the cargohold and moved some debris around until he revealed his CMC-400 suit. "Good boy," he says as he has it run a diagnostic that reports minimal damage. He then continues searching until he finds what he was looking for: a small SCV suit used for repairs to the ship during flights in space and turns to Kerrigan.

She looks at the suit with a look of disgust on her face. "You can't be serious. You want me to wear that thing?" SCV suits were far from glamorous. Workhorses of the Terran army they were designed to get the job done, not look pretty doing it. The usual SCV was almost 12 feet tall, but this one had been designed for in-flight repairs rather than industrial work and as such was only 7 feet tall and the tools on its arms were designed specifically for ship repair. The suit's one saving grace: it was designed to work in the vacuum of space. Once sealed inside a person could survive the cold of space and if they could survive that they could survive the cold on a planet.

"It's either this or we both try to fit in mine. As cozy as that would be, I don't think we'd survive that way for very long." Raynor chuckled. With a disgusted noise Kerrigan released the safety straps and made her way back to the suit to begin its power up sequence, climbing inside and running a diagnostic. Raynor made his own way into his suit and after a few minutes both of them were suited up and ready to go. Unfortunately for Kerrigan, the suit was not designed to hold a weapon and as such she had to store her rifle on the back of the suit instead of in her hands, leaving her defenseless. Raynor picked up his rifle from among the littered debris and cleared the muzzle of any possible obstructions before checking to see how much ammo he had left.

Raynor lowered the visor of his suit to seal out the cold and turned to Kerrigan. "Ready, Sarah?" he asked over the radio and she nodded. Raynor moved towards the buckled door and reared back in the suit, kicking the door down in one go. The door flew off it's hinges and they were assaulted by high winds that brought cold into the interior of the remains of the ship, ice and snow drifting in and filling it up. _Before long this entire wreck is going to be covered. _Raynor thought as he stepped outside the craft and saw the trail the vehicle, hot from reentry, had left in the snow being quickly retaken by the cold winds. He pulled up his suit's navigation system and linked it with the ship's sensors long enough to get the location of the nearest settlement. Raynor hefted his rifle to his shoulders and motioned for Kerrigan to follow him out into the snow. _Now for the hard part…_Raynor thought as the two of them headed out into the snow.


	4. Survive

_Author's Note: I hope you people like this one. My hope is that it sets up the plot for the next few chapters and reveals that it might not be all well with Kerrigan just yet._

**Chapter 3**

**Survive**

Raynor's breath was coming in gasps, pushing up a hill through deep snow drifts and against high winds was not as easy as it sounded. Especially toting a heavy rifle. Several times he considered dropping it but every time he realized he knew nothing about the world they were on and had no idea what kind of dangers they could run into. So he continued to carry it, moving through the snow at what felt like a snail's pace with Kerrigan following behind in the channel through the snow he was making with his suit. "How you holding up back there, Sarah?"

"Just peachy. This suit is so…restricting. I can't move worth a shit." Kerrigan replied, stretching her body as far as the confines of the suit would allow her, which wasn't very. Raynor simply grinned and turned back to face ahead. Warning lights suddenly started flashing in his suit as it began sending him warnings about possible suit failures. The high winds were forcing snow and ice into crevices in his suit, which was causing the suit to bind and some of the mechanisms to start seizing up and the suit wasn't happy about it. Raynor flipped a switch and shut the warnings off since there wasn't much he could do about it at the moment anyways.

As the pair made their way across the mountains, Raynor noticed a major lack of vegetation on the planet. There were practically no trees on the ground with which to break the wind and only a few mounds of snow that could have even possibly been bushes covered in snow. He didn't have energy to waste checking on it so it was simply a mystery for the time being. Raynor finally topped the crest of the hill they had been marching up and could see down the other side. "Halfway there, sweetheart. Just a little further." Raynor said as he checked his navigation read out before moving out again, clearing the snow for his beloved.

Every few steps Raynor would check back to make sure Kerrigan was still with him. Her silence over the radio was disturbing at best and frightening at worst. If she stayed silent for much longer he'd start to worry the suit was failing her. A muffled roar sounded from nearby and a large form slowly materialized out of the falling snow. A large, white, furry beast advanced on the lone pair, a growl coming from deep within its throat. Raynor pulled up short and Kerrigan almost bumped into him, stumbling at the last minute and finally pulling her eyes from the ground. At the sight of the monster she almost jumped but Raynor put a calming hand on her shoulder.

Raynor slowly began backing around the creature, keeping one hand on Kerrigan's shoulder with the other leveling his rifle at the large beast. The creature tracked their path with his eyes, not closing the distance but not backing away either. It seemed to be waiting for something and whatever it was Raynor didn't want to hang around to find out what it could be. He realized that was an empty hope as two more shapes materialized out of the mist, one even larger than the creature currently facing them. As the larger one advanced, the two smaller creatures back off, obviously giving it preference.

Raynor heard a growl coming over the radio and turned to see Kerrigan looking at the beast and even through the frosted pane of the SCV view port Raynor could see a feral snarl on her lips. "Sarah…let's not be hasty now…" he started to say but was interrupted by her.

"Who are you, lowly creature, to challenge my might? You want to take me down, then come and try!" she yelled at the beast, even though there was no way for the creature to hear with her suit closed to outside communication. With a feral roar she charged at the beast, and the beast lunged towards her with a roar of its own, as if it could hear and respond to Kerrigan after all. The two connected in the middle as Raynor could only watch and Kerrigan was launched backwards by a swipe from the creature. Raynor pulled the trigger on his rifle but the rifle made a chugging noise but other than that nothing happened. The weapon had succumbed to the cold after all, rendering it useless and Raynor unarmed. With a curse he pulled his sidearm out of the holster in the leg of his suit and opened fire. The creature howled in pain as the bullets pierced its hide and changed targets, charging towards Raynor and away from the prone Kerrigan.

Raynor combat rolled out of the way of the charging beast and landed in a crouched firing position, unloading the rest of his side arm's ammo into the side and head of the beast as it turned around for another charge. The beast roared in pain and anger and leapt through the air, trying to crush Raynor under its massive feet. Raynor managed to dive out of the way once again but now he was out of ammo in his sidearm and once again defenseless. As the beast reoriented itself for another charge Raynor tripped over his previously discarded rifle and fell to the ground. With a curse he kicked at the hunk of metal and something inside of it made a sound like a release. Grabbing onto that one hopeful wish he picked the rifle and leveled it at the charging beast, praying to any God or gods that would listen for the weapon to work.

The rifle belched fire as heavy round after heavy round poured into the beast's head and upper torso, blood beginning to pour from all over, yet the beast continued to charge. Raynor let out a yell of defiance as the beast continued bearing down on him until it finally succumbed to its wounds and fell down face first, not more than a meter from where Raynor sat with the rifle still pointing at it. Raynor suddenly realized he was gasping for breath, the exertion and fear caused from seeing Kerrigan hurt had taken their toll and he could barely move for a few seconds. He slowly levered himself to his feet and leveled his rifle at the other two beasts. With a snarl the two other beasts began retreating, keeping their eyes on the weapon in Raynor's hands.

As the creatures finally faded from sight, Raynor let out a pent up breath. He hadn't been sure he could have fired the weapon again, much less held off two more beasts so he was glad they departed after their leader was defeated. "Sarah!" Raynor rushed over to the prone form, glad to see that she was still alive but the readings on the suit were showing small ruptures in the suit. It was meant for simple repairs, not melee combat against a clawed monster. Raynor looked around for something to make a sled out of but with the complete lack of vegetation there wasn't as much as a large branch anywhere in sight.

He looked down at the prone, weak form of his love and made up his mind. He wasn't going to lose her again, no matter what. He discarded his rifle and did something he'd promised himself he'd never do, he activated the stim patches in his suit. The suit immediately injected the drug into his system and Raynor felt himself revitalized with an almost inhuman amount of energy. He discarded the rifle and picked Kerrigan up in his arms, positioning her carefully before begin to run through the snow.

It felt like decades went by as Raynor ran through the snow, Kerrigan's suit rapidly venting the atmosphere it had kept inside and being replaced by the deadly cold of the planet they found themselves stranded on. On and on he ran, when the first jolt from the stim pack wore off, he triggered it again. When that one wore off, he triggered it again. His suit began flashing warnings indicating further use of the drug would risk permanent damage to his health or his psyche but he just ignored the lights and sounds and triggered the pack again.

Raynor began to see visions. At first it was Zerg running through the snow after him and he almost doubled his speed before the vision disappeared and was replaced by a squad of his Raiders, running away from an unknown something behind them. He started to bark orders to get them to spread out and flank their pursuers or to join up with other forces. That vision faded to be replaced by another until he could hardly tell reality from fiction, the only thing that stayed in his mind was the need to keep going and no matter what, not let go of the precious bundle in his arms. He triggered the stim pack again.

Eventually, Raynor collapsed, throwing the still unconscious Kerrigan for a tumble as he landed face first in the snow. With a jolt, his partially deranged mind focused on the one thing he knew he mustn't lose and he scrambled over to Kerrigan again. In a brief moment of clarity, Raynor spotted buildings through the still falling snow. Raynor picked up his cargo and began to make his way towards the building, his stim pack empty of charges and his own body rebelling. Stumbling across the threshold of a building, Raynor reached for the door handle but halfway there he lost sight and simply fell forwards, his heavy suit knocking the door out of its housing and allowing him and Kerrigan to fall into the warmth inside. The fact that they had made it never even registered with Raynor. He was unconscious before he hit the ground.


	5. Awaken

**Chapter 4**

**Awaken**

Void. Dark. Pain and suffering. Screams. _Cold…so very cold…Why am I so cold? _Thoughts bounce around without any true purpose. _Wait…there's an I? Who am I?_ Visions appear. A black, metal suit carrying…something. _Oh, that's me. That suit is carrying me. That's Jim. Jim!_ At the thought of Jim, awareness began to return to Sarah Kerrigan in a flood. She surfaced from the recesses of her mind as though rising through a sea, the sudden return of sights and sounds astonishing. "Jim!" Kerrigan called as soon as she reached near full awareness, sitting up in the bed. _A bed? How did I…"_ Kerrigan began to take in her surroundings noting the sparse furniture consisting of nothing more than the bed she was on and a metal desk and chair.

Kerrigan slowly climbed to her feet, shifting out of the bed before suddenly realizing she's stark naked with her supple body exposed to the world. With a slight blush she pulled the sheet off the bed and wrapped it around her body, concealing her exposed breasts and buttocks. She unsteadily stepped over to the door her bare feet making almost no noise on the cold, metal floors while her improvised clothing snaking along behind. She carefully opened the door to peek out through the crack while attempting to sense the condition of her surroundings, but something seemed to be blocking her psionic capabilities. It was like attempting to peer into a room through a frosted glass window, giving her the feeling of people being there but no clue as to who or how many not even where they were.

Seeing no immediate threat Kerrigan stepped out into the hallway and made her way down the path to the top of a set of stairs that seem to lead down into a type of common room where several male voices could be heard conversing about nothing in particular, a typical tavern type of set up. Peeking around the corner of the wall she looked down the stairs to scan the room to see a room set up with tables and chairs lined up in a fairly orderly manner with a bar over to the side, one man cleaning glasses behind it while several groups of men sit at various tables or at the bar enjoying a drink and conversation. Her eyes glanced over towards the entrance and saw a makeshift door where there would normally be a solid metal one, the new door obviously only temporary. Kerrigan mentally groans at the number of men wearing military uniforms with the Dominion insignia on their shoulder scattered throughout the bar and between her and the doorway. Dominion soldiers presumably on break from the local barracks enjoying their free time by having a few drinks with their friends. In her current condition she'd be lucky to take out one soldier, much less a room full.

She turned back around to search for another way down and almost screamed as she practically ran into a white haired older man with glasses standing almost directly behind her, clutching a bag with the universal red plus sign signifying a doctor. With her psionic abilities dampened she hadn't sensed his approach at all and the start he gave her caused her to fall backwards to land at the top of the stairs, working the sheet she had wrapped around herself loose and exposing her naked body. The uniformed men down below heard the muted scream and the thud and looked up the stairway, a few of them whistling appreciatively at the sight of her lithe figure and firm breasts. The old man quickly stepped forward to shield her body from the view of the other men and motioned for her to cover herself back up quickly. A few catcalls are heard from below as Kerrigan gathered the sheet around her as quickly as she could, her face turning red in embarrassment and then anger and she has to mentally fight an urge to charge down the stairs and slash their throats open. The severity of that one thought shocked Kerrigan and she almost lost her grip on the sheet once again as she wondered where that thought could have come from.

The old man helped her back to the room she came from and gets her situated back on the bed, offering words of encouragement as her feet and legs seem to start failing her, having to rely more and more on the stranger's support. Once she is finally repositioned on the bed with the sheet covering her nakedness once again the old man pulls the chair over from the desk and sets the bag on the edge of the bed. "You really know how to make a surprise entrance," he starts up conversationally. "Here I was enjoying a drink one of the few times I allow myself to go out and what happens but the bloody door gets kicked in and we all get assaulted by the outside temperatures. It's bloody freezing outside in case you weren't aware," the old man glanced at Kerrigan accusingly before continuing. "Anyways, from the condition you were in there was no way I could simply let you be as a doctor and so I picked you up from the floor and paid the proprietor to let you stay here for a bit as you recovered. Fortunately for you all you had was a case of frostbite and we didn't have to amputate anything thanks to my skill," the doctor winked at her. "Not like we've had to do that for centuries but that's not the point. On the other hand, the man you came in with was far worse for wear. Practically dead before he hit the floor I would say. I had to get him rushed back to my building before I could treat him. That suit of his was probably the only thing keeping him alive. Damn fine piece of engineering if I do say so. Who made it? Do you know?"

Kerrigan was in no mood to respond to questions now. "What happened to Jim? Where's Jim?" her voice rising as she attempted to find out about the man that had sacrificed so much already for her sake.

The doctor blinked at her sudden outburst and pulls his glasses from his face to clean the lenses as he responded. "Well, like I said I had to take him to my building. I'm a doctor you know so I have plenty of medical devices hooked up over there. I used to be a medic you know so I just hooked him up to my medical suite and used the life support systems to try and bring him back to the land of the living." The doctor began to feel uncomfortable as Kerrigan's eyes took on a dangerous look, never once leaving his own. With a cough he repositioned the glasses on his face and reached into his bag. "He's fine now. Well, stabilized at least. I won't say he'll be fine for quite some time to come but he should come about."

Kerrigan attempts to sit up, "Take me to him now."

The doctor puts a hand on her shoulder and pushes her back down onto the bed, "You're not ready yet. Give yourself some time to heal first. You shouldn't even be able to move yet so I'm surprised you actually made it to the stairs from here."

Kerrigan started to fight against the man's arm but met surprising strength for an old man. A snarl began to curl her lips and feral noises escape her throat as she thrashed at the doctor, attempting to reach him with fingers curled remarkably like claws. "Let me go!"

The doctor calmly fends her off and plunges a syringe into her arm that he had taken out of the bag. "Now now, sleep for a little longer young one. When you wake up hopefully you'll feel better and not try to kill me." Kerrigan continues trying to grasp the old man but her strength is rapidly leaving her and her thrashing becomes weaker and weaker until she finally succumbs to the darkness once again.

Sometime later Kerrigan woke up as a warm hand is pressed against her wrist. She opened her eyes to see the old doctor with his fingers at her wrist and eyes on his watch. A groan escapes her lips and the doctor looks over at her, a smile on his face. "Ah good, you're awake. I was hoping you'd come around soon. I do believe you're ready to be moved and I figured you'd want to get going as quickly as possible."

Kerrigan attempted to sit up from the bed but the man pushed her down once again, "Now one second. Before I agree to let you out of this bed we need to introduce ourselves. Unless you decide to do this civilly I'll dose you again and let you sleep it off until you are ready." Kerrigan tried and failed to reach out with her psionic abilities and a frustrated sigh escapes her but she stops struggling. The doctor nods and retracts his arm from her shoulder. "Now, my name is Chuck Yohan. You're on a planet called Braxis and I'm a former military medic but now I work at a desk job at a research facility, keeping everyone here healthy as a bear," the doctor smiles encouragingly. "Now it's your turn."

Kerrigan sighs again before beginning, "My name is Sarah Janeswell. I'm a pilot working supply runs with my…partner and we hit an errant asteroid that lodged in one of our engines, causing us to crash land on the planet. I don't remember much after the crash so I'm afraid I can't tell you how I got here." Kerrigan couldn't sense any malicious intent from Yohan but without use of her psionic powers she couldn't be sure and considering the fact that the men downstairs had been wearing Dominion insignias she doubted this man would be supportive of her as the former Queen of Blades.

The doctor simply nodded and seemed to accept her story at face value, smiling at her before packing up his bag and setting it on the ground. "Well, you might not know what happened but I can tell you how you two arrived. As I mentioned earlier I was enjoying a drink when the two of you came crashing through the door and sending it flying. You were practically frozen from exposure and your partner had pushed himself far beyond human endurance in carrying you quite some distance. His suit's stim pack charges were completely spent and I can honestly say I've never seen a human survive that many stims and he honestly shouldn't have. I called my assistant from the lab and had him bring a transport over with enough meds to heal an ursadon as I got you situated in a room up here and surrounded by everything warm I could find. By the time my assistant arrived you were situated and I could focus on your partner. I lifted up his visor and injected a restorative directly into his neck just to keep his body from expiring on the trip to the lab. I paid the proprietor enough money for the room, and then some, and he promised to keep an eye on you and change the hotpads as well as make sure you didn't get any worse while I was at the lab.

"Once we got there we cracked your partner out of his suit and got him hooked up to the life support machines and spent the majority of the night getting him stabilized. By the time we managed that it was some crazy hour in the middle of the morning and I came back to check up on you. Color had already returned and you were breathing normally once again, but you were still cold to the touch so I paid the owner for another day and then decided to get one for myself considering how tired I was. I called my assistant and told him to watch over your partner and I'd keep an eye on you." The doctor wound down his tale and self-consciously adjusted his glasses.

Kerrigan smiled at the kind old man, realizing just how hard a total stranger had worked for her and Jim. "Thank you, Dr. Yohan. I appreciate it. You saved both our lives and we owe them to you."

The doctor almost blushed; he hadn't been genuinely thanked by an attractive woman in quite some years. "It was your partner who saved you. Putting his body through hell just to get you to a semblance of civilization."

Kerrigan nodded. "Of course. He always did try far too hard…" she sighed and slowly sat up from the bed with Yohan watching to make sure she didn't have any problems or try to move too fast. Kerrigan kept the sheet up to her shoulders and Yohan quickly turned around to pull a pair of warm clothes from the desk and bring them over to her.

"You can put these on for now. Hell you should probably keep them. They fit in much better than what you arrived wearing." Kerrigan blushed as she realized it must have been this man who removed her clothing as she was sleeping. She nodded and the doctor left the room to allow her privacy to change. She climbed from the bed and began putting the clothes on, none of them really fitting but all of them comfortably warm. As she checked herself out in the mirror the clothes obscured her outline but otherwise seemed from outward appearance to fit. She attempted to make her mess of Zerg-like hair into something other than cascading down her back and then stopped. No one alive would see the hair as something "normal." And if the good doctor had spent as much time with her as he said, he must have noticed it. Her danger signals began firing but she couldn't simply leave since the doctor seemed to be the only one who knew where Jim was.

With a determined expression she flipped the hood up to cover her head and left the room, meeting up with the doctor who was waiting outside, his own coat and hood up. "Ready to go?" he asked, all smiles.

Kerrigan once again attempted to use her psionic powers but the fuzziness was still there, presumably a side effect of the drug he had been keeping her under with. "Ready," she toned and the two of them made their way out of the building and into the freezing cold, Kerrigan already designing escape plans and contingencies hoping that one of them would manage to get both her and Jim out of danger.


	6. Reunite

_Author's Note: Whew. Well...I spent 13 hours working today so this is a late late late posting but I put a lot of work into this one. It's the longest chapter yet and hopefully helps set the relationship between Kerrigan and Raynor for the story. It's 4am when I'm posting this so if there are more mistakes than usual I truly apologize.  
_

_As always, feel free to read and review :)  
_

**Chapter 5**

**Reunite**

Yohan led Kerrigan to a two-story metal building and placed his transponder against the wall next to the door in a slot designed for it and with a beep the door swooshed open to admit the two of them. Once inside Kerrigan was surprised to see another door directly in front of her.

"It keeps out the chill. Similar to an airlock but designed for buildings that don't want the cold to sneak in through an open door," Yohan answered her unasked question as the door behind them slid closed just as the one in front slid open. "Welcome to my humble place of work."

Kerrigan looked around the entrance way and saw a few benches and a main desk behind a glass screen, apparently designed for a clerk of sorts but currently there didn't seem to be one. The waiting area had a few reader pads sitting around and Kerrigan picked one up to flip through the available selection. Not too surprisingly it was all outdated magazines and news stories, causing Kerrigan to smile a little before she returned to keeping a careful eye on the doctor. She reached out with her psionic powers to check the surroundings but she was unable to reach past the room she was currently in. Past that was the same fuzziness she had been experiencing earlier. Apparently she wasn't fully over the effects of the drug and with a sigh she let the power flow stop and returned to more basic methods, using her eyes and ears.

Yohan led her to another room and pointed to a screen that appeared to be showing a patient's vitals. "This, is your partner Jim." Kerrigan read through the numbers and her heart dropped. A human with a pulse rate that low shouldn't still be alive, not to mention the brain activity was going haywire which was usually a sign of incredibly troubled dreams if not true insanity. Yohan walked over to a wall and pressed a button, turning a section of the wall into a monitor that showed Raynor hooked up to all different kinds of machines. Kerrigan walked over to the wall, her eyes fixed on the image of Raynor's face and she couldn't pull herself away.

"He's stable for now, but he doesn't seem to be coming around or improving. It's almost like he's not trying, like he's given up." Yohan looked at Kerrigan expectantly but she just looked lost. Jim had given up? How could that be possible? He'd fought through so much already and always pulled through but here he was practically on his death bed. Kerrigan turned to Yohan, her face a confliction of emotions, and asks, "Where is he? Can I see him?"

Yohan nodded and lead her down a side hallway to a door that he opened with a keycode. Kerrigan habitually noted the key presses in her head and was surprised at the simplicity of the code. 4321 is not the kind of code one uses to secure highly important subjects, but instead is just there to keep the curious out. She began to wonder what exactly was going on until the door slid open, pulling Kerrigan from her thoughts as she practically rushed into the room and to Raynor's bedside. She placed her hand on his chest but quickly pulled it away, looking at Raynor's outline through the sheet. She cautiously placed her hand back on his chest and felt around, her hand telling her a different story than her eyes. Through the sheet, Raynor looked to be relatively normal but exploring with her hands she felt almost every bone in his body. Yohan walked over and pulled the sheet down to reveal Raynor's upper torso as Kerrigan covered her mouth with her hand in shock. Raynor's once full frame was now an emaciated husk, his breathing ragged with a rattling sound in his throat on every breath. His visible ribcage barely rose with each inhale and his skeletal arms simply laid there motionless.

Yohan replaced the sheet and Kerrigan collapsed, conveniently into a chair placed by the bed possibly for that exact purpose. She slowly brought her hand down from her mouth and rested it on her knee, gripping the cloth of the pants tightly, with her eyes fixated on the floor to avoid looking at Raynor. The doctor checked some vitals on a nearby monitor before pulling another chair over and sitting next to her. "I know it isn't easy to see someone as strong as him looking like this, but you have to if you want to help him like he helped you. What happened to his body was brought on by a massive over usage of stimpacks, presumably it's how he managed to get the two of you here in such a record time. At the rate your suit was leaking atmosphere another minute of exposure and there wouldn't have been much heat left in you at all. As it was I had to keep you dosed with a weak level stimulant simply to keep your heart from shutting down. The stimulant kept your blood moving throughout your body and thus warmed you up from the inside out as the various heat packs and what not warmed up from the outside in.

"As for him, his body was simply shutting down. It was like pushing an engine beyond its limits and then attempting to repair it while it was still running. Unlike in a machine, if the human engine stops working there isn't a way to put new pieces in and bring it back. As I said I managed to stabilize him but as the days progressed the side effects of the stimpacks became apparent. The massive weight loss, the deranged dreaming, internal hemorrhaging, the whole range. It was a fight to simply keep him from succumbing to all of that as each showed up in turn."

Kerrigan suddenly looked over at the doctor. "Wait, days? Just how long was I out?"

"Almost a week," Yohan responded, blinking behind his glasses. To him less than a week of recovery from her kind of damage was simply remarkable and the fact that she hadn't expected that was a surprise.

Kerrigan just stared at the doctor, her mouth open in shock. She had been out a whole week? Questions began racing through her head. Where could the Hyperion be? Had they given them up for dead? What about the Zerg they had run into? Where had they gotten to? Did they not manage to follow them?

Then she began to wonder about the more immediate concern of their local planet. A ship crash-lands on a Dominion controlled planet with the Raynor's Raider's logo emblazoned on it, the natural response would be to look for survivors to question. It was too much to hope that the snow would have covered up all traces of their crash especially considering they were probably picked up on their way in by Dominion comsats or sensor towers. By now there was almost certainly a search party out looking for them and if she didn't get Jim out of there soon both of them were going to be caught and tried.

A monitor gave off a beep and the doctor got up to go see what the alert was about. Kerrigan stealthily slipped a scalpel off a nearby table and lodged it up her sleeve as the doctor began muttering to himself a little and adjusted a few settings before he returned to Kerrigan. Instead of sitting back down, however, he simply placed a hand on her shoulder and squeezed before heading out the door, leaving the two of them alone.

After the door shut behind Yohan Kerrigan went over and tried opening the door using the interior panel. It opened with ease and she stuck her head out, watching as Yohan disappeared into another part of the lab. She pulled her head back inside and let the door close behind her satisfied that, at least for the time being, they could leave if need be. She returned to her chair and sat back down, hands nervously clinching and unclenching her pant legs as she pointedly looked everywhere except at the emaciated form of Raynor, the rock of her life now a shadow of his former self. She got up to pace around the room a bit and then returned to the chair to once again sit anxiously. Eventually Kerrigan took a deep breath and let her eyes settle on the gaunt face of the man she had put all of her faith in, the man who had saved her time and again, risking his life and goals in the process, the man who had sacrificed his own body in order to preserve her own, still not fully human, form.

Kerrigan slid her chair closer to the bedside and tentatively reached out her hand to grab his through the sheet, glad that at least that much of his body seemed relatively the same. Deciding that it simply wasn't enough she slipped his arm out from under the sheet and grasped his hand with both of her own, intertwining his fingers with hers.

As the monitors continued their routine sounds and alerts and the machines their individual noises, Kerrigan began to talk to Raynor. "I…I'm not very good at the whole bedside manner thing you know. So I hate you for putting me in this sort of situation," she began, "but I am supposed to be adaptable so this is just one of those times to adapt." She paused, momentarily not sure what she was doing or if he could even hear her in his comatose state.

Eventually she continued talking to him. Talking about the past they had spent together during their days in the Sons of Korhal. The various missions they had completed together and the antics they had gotten up to in between. She talked about the time he had gotten himself roaring drunk in a local bar with a squad of his men and proceeded to propose to every female occupant there, except for her. She laughed with tears in her eyes as she told him it was she who had spilled his drink over his drunken head and then left as he spluttered about attempting to find the culprit. She continued talking about all the happy times they had had in the past, and she realized that the brief time they had spent together in the Sons of Korhal was filled with a remarkably large number of happy times. Eventually she got to the last time she had heard Jim's voice through her own ears before her infestation. She remembered his fighting Mengsk as he ordered a full evacuation, leaving her to her fate, and then she mentioned stories she had heard about how he immediately stole a dropship to come look for her, decking a senior officer in the process, which made her smile through the tears that were now rolling down her cheeks.

"You've always been there for me in the past, even when I didn't want you to be. Hell you were there when I was trying to kill you yet you never stopped looking for a way to save me," Kerrigan wiped the tears from her face as she tried to steady herself. "Now it's my turn to be there for you, to save you. And I'll be damned if I let you die on me the first chance I get to play the hero." She attempted a laugh that almost turned into a sob. She gripped his hand tightly and stopped talking until she could recover herself. She felt a faint tug at her hands and looked first to Raynor's hand and then to his face, but was disappointed as there appeared to be no change at all. Even so she grasped onto the faint hope that the possibly imaginary movement gave her and she began talking once again, this time about their future. She talked about how they were going to get off this frozen planet and find a tropical paradise for them to spend time together on. Sitting on a beach and enjoying the comforts of the sun away from any wars and away from any stress, their own island in a sea of chaos where they didn't have to worry about being separated ever again.

The hours wore on as Kerrigan talked. Not following any train of thought but simply talking, only being interrupted once when Yohan returned to bring her some water and food. By this time her throat was parched and she expressed her thanks to the doctor for the kindness. The old man smiled and left as quietly as he had entered and she began talking once again. Another few hours passed as she struggled to keep her eyes open, talking through yawns and heavy eyes. Eventually she laid her head down on the edge of the bed, unable to keep her eyes from drifting closed but her hand still firmly grasping Jim's as she slowly fell into an exhausted sleep, still muttering about their future home and family.

Kerrigan felt a warm hand resting on the back of her head, weakly stroking through her hair in a rhythmic pattern. She smiled as the movement brought a tingling feeling through her entire body, the motion feeling completely natural as she snuggled up closer to the source of the hand. Suddenly her eyes snapped open and she sat bolt upright, clasping the falling hand in her own as she stared down at Raynor's smiling face and now open eyes. "Jim!" she calls as she almost lept out of the chair to hug the man she had feared she was going to lose.

"Easy, darling. I'm not quite as tough as I once was after all," Raynor said, his weak and cracked voice still portraying his amusement and pleasure at the sudden embrace. Kerrigan quickly pulled back, concern in her eyes but he simply croaks out a chuckle. "Nothing to worry about sweetheart. I'll be shipshape in a few days."

"No you won't you've been living off of meds for the past week so cut that bravado crap. You had me worried that I would have to carry your ass off this planet, though, so you'd better get healed up soon, mister," Kerrigan said with mock severity as she attempted to fix him with a stern look but failed due to the tears that appeared in her eyes. She quickly turned and wiped them away before Jim could see but he smiled all the more. She settled herself back down on the edge of Raynor's bed and he reached out for her hand which she grabbed in her own.

"So, it really was you who dumped my drink after all, huh?" Raynor asked with a grin on his face. Kerrigan turned to look at him, startled.

"You heard? I thought you were totally out?"

"I was, but I heard you in my dreams. We were simply having a conversation in the Hyperion's cantina, but you never seemed to hear my responses so I simply listened and listened." Raynor's face took on a serious look, "I did look for you all over the day you were…taken. I almost got all the men with me killed over it. I promise I tried. I really tried. I..." Raynor's usually impassive face cracking, tears forming in the corners of his eyes as they almost pleaded for her forgiveness.

Kerrigan leaned down and wrapped her arms behind his head, pulling him to her chest and resting her chin on his head. "I know. I know. You did everything you could," she replied as Raynor slowly wrapped his arms around her and returned the embrace as best as his weakened arms were able.

The door to Raynor's room suddenly opened as the doctor walked in, delight filling his face. "Ahha! Welcome back to the living Mr. Raynor!" he said, a grin splitting his face. A grin that falters a bit and almost fails as he suddenly had a scalpel at his throat, the sharp edge pressed precisely against his skin but without cutting through. He doesn't move his body an inch and instead traced his eyes up the scalpel and the arm holding it to the face of Kerrigan, a mixture of anger and fear filling her features.

"How do you know his name? I know I never mentioned it and he just woke up so he couldn't have either. Who are you and how long have you known?" the anger in her voice is almost palpable yet the fear that they might both be in danger just barely concealed beneath the surface.

Yohan attempted to talk but the scalpel is placed so closely to his throat that any attempt could drive it in. He turned his eyes down and Kerrigan slowly pulled the scalpel a short distance back to give him just enough room to breathe without cutting an artery. With a quick clearing of his throat the doctor began to talk. "I'm sorry but I've known since the beginning. There aren't many men who wear a black suit of armor with a skull painted on the visor. And there are even less Terran females with bits of Zerg in their hair, ya know?" He nervously glanced at the scalpel still less than an inch from his throat. "Now uh…if I had planned on turning the two of you in I would have done it long ago when you were still unconscious so if you wouldn't mind can we sit down and talk about this like civilized people?"

A snarl began in Kerrigan's throat as she fought the urge to simply drive the blade into the man's throat. Her humanity screamed at her to listen and let him talk but the aggression simply refused to back down. She began to pull the blade back to strike but was interrupted by Raynor's voice from the bed. "Sarah, let's hear the man out." At the sound of his voice the aggressive urge vanished and she hid the blade back up her sleeve in a single movement.

The doctor nodded towards Raynor before he sat down in one of the chairs in the room and nervously pulled his glasses from his ears to clean them on a cloth. Kerrigan positioned herself between the doctor and the door as he began to talk. "As I said I knew who you both where almost as soon as you showed up. The news was ablaze about the Raiders and Valerian's armada working together to remove the Zerg threat from the galaxy. There are even pictures of the two of you," Yohan points at both Raynor and Kerrigan with his glasses, "being escorted onto a Raider's dropship, released by Valerian's personal news corp. apparently, which made identifying you two remarkably easy. At least for me.

"Fortunately for the two of you, Braxis is a bit off the beaten path. We don't keep up with current events for the most part as we're just a research planet now and are more focused on what we're working on then what's going on, ya know? So when you two arrived in the tavern, it was me, the bartender, and 3 other researchers just enjoying a late night drink and out of all of us I was the only one that recognized you right off. I managed to conceal Mr. Raynor's visor decal by sliding it up and injecting the medicine and as for your hair, Miss Kerrigan, I simply used a warm towel to wrap it up."

Yohan replaced his glasses on his face and blinked a few times before continuing. "The people here are a good sort, but the soldiers in the local barracks are still Dominion troops and they do what they are told, which includes hunting for fugitives such as yourselves. If one of them had seen you I don't think they would have let it slide by so I'm hopeful that we still have some time left before they come looking."

Kerrigan simply looked at the old medic, but Raynor croaked, "Why? Why did you, a Dominion doctor, help us? We must have made your life quite difficult through all our battles."

Yohan gave a sad smile and shakes his head. "I'm actually not Dominion. I was a medic in the old Confederacy. By the time you boys showed up I was already sitting a desk job, too old for field work. I volunteered for this position exactly because it was out of the way and I hoped I could avoid the conflicts entirely," he shrugged. "Seems like that's not how fate has it set for me, however."

Kerrigan looked at him with a piercing look. "That still doesn't answer the why, however. Why did you help us and not turn us in?"

"Simple, really. I'm a doctor, ya know? A doctor's job is to help those in need and as long as a patient draws breath they deserve to be helped, no matter whose side they are on."

Kerrigan and Raynor exchanged a look and Kerrigan let out a sigh before slowly replacing the scalpel on the table that she had taken it from. "Alright doc, you win. Without you we'd both be dead so I owe you not only for my own life but for that lard ass over there too." Raynor nodded in agreement and Kerrigan wobbly sat down on the edge of the bed, her still unstable legs giving out from the sudden stress.

Yohan smiled as he slowly stood up from the chair and looked the both of them in the eye. "Thank you for believing me. It means a lot when two prominent figures such as yourselves are willing to put your trust in an almost complete stranger." He then turned towards Raynor and formally introduced himself. "My name is Dr. Chuck Yohan, by the way. I was planning on introducing myself correctly earlier but we were…interrupted. So it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance."

"The pleasure's all mine." Raynor said and weakly raised his hand for a handshake that Yohan gladly took under the watchful eye of Kerrigan.

"Now then, I believe the first order of business is getting you two off of this rock and I happen to know the perfect way. Every month or so a supply ship comes by and offers to take passengers to and from our planet. Kind of like an intergalactic bus," the old man grinned at his own joke but the other two simply assumed worried expressions.

"How are we going to get on this 'bus' without being caught?" Kerrigan asked.

"Simple. I'll be your elderly father and the two of you will be newlyweds, bringing Mr. Raynor, or should I say Mr. Janeswell as you originally called yourself, to meet your father for the first time." Raynor spluttered at the implication, unable to form full sentences for a minute but Kerrigan simply laughed, the first time in what felt like years, and planted a firm, long kiss on Raynor's lips, shutting him up completely as he folded into the intimacy. The doctor awkwardly coughed and started heading for the door. "Well then, I'll let the two of you be alone for a while. If you wish I could bring in another bed to allow for more comfortable positioning…?" he says to Kerrigan.

Kerrigan's response is to simply lay down in the bed with Raynor and force him to slide over a little. "No, I think this will do just fine." The old doctor smiled and left the room, setting the lights to dimmer on his way out. Kerrigan locked eyes with Raynor and then snuggled in closer, resting her head on his still broad chest. Raynor settled his arm under her head and rested his hand in the small of her back, smiling contently as the two of them quietly drifted back into sleep, simply enjoying each others company for the first time in what felt like a lifetime.


	7. Recover

_Author's Note: Sorry about the massive delay in posting. Having to rewrite the entire story plot line along with a chapter inbetween tests and 12 hour works shifts...bleh. Time consuming. Anyways, hope you enjoy and as always read and review :D _

**Chapter 6**

**Recover**

Days passed as Kerrigan and Raynor both healed from their various injuries and worked on changing their appearance so as to not be quite so recognizable. Kerrigan looked at her naked self in the mirror and at the various Zerg tentacles still attached to her skull and sighed. Jim had already gotten his own shave and a haircut so now it was her turn so she picked up the scissors and began removing the remaining signs of Zerg infestation. As the various tentacle like objects fell away her hair began to look more like what it used to, red strands filling up the gaps where the tentacles used to be. She ran a hand through her hair and grimaced. It was thin in the spots where she had just cut out the tentacles but the base of red hair was there. With her hair so short she was limited with what she could do so she gave up on having her usual ponytail for a bit and instead trimmed all her longer strands down to even it out with the rest.

As she placed the scissors down the floor was covered in short red strands of hair but her head was covered quite nicely by a nice layer of hair as much in a pixie cut as she could make it herself. The door to her and Jim's room slid open and Jim himself walked into the bathroom, wrapping his arms around her naked waist and pulling her into his embrace. She leaned her head back and looked at Raynor's clean-shave face and smiled. "Well don't you look different," she said as she ran a hand over his smooth jaw and chin.

"Different? Couldn't you have at least said handsome?" Raynor joked as he kissed the top of her head. She let out a rather girlish giggle and wiggled out of his arms, flaunting her nudity as she made her way back into the main part of the room that Yohan had set up for them in the laboratory. Instead of the usual medical equipment Yohan had brought in a doublewide bed, a dresser and change of clothes, and a nightstand with a lamp. She flopped down on the bed, crossing her legs and stretching her thin body out luxuriously, every curve accentuated in the low lighting of the room. Raynor stepped over to the doorway of the adjoining bathroom and simply enjoyed the view as Kerrigan laid there.

With a sigh Kerrigan sat back up and locked eyes with Raynor. "Alright Mr. Handsome, what do you say about my new hair?" she asked. Raynor walked over and sat down behind her on the bed, letting her lean back against his chest as he kissed her on the top of the head.

"You look beautiful, darling. Always have always will," he said.

Kerrigan snorted. "You woulda said that if I had just shaved it all off too, wouldn't you?"

"Of course. What else do you tell a woman who can rip you apart with her mind?" Raynor joked. Kerrigan reached behind her and smacked his chest with her hand. Raynor just laughed again as he started to stand back up but was stopped half way by a hand on his leg. Kerrigan looked up at Raynor through long eye lashes, her breasts practically brushing his hand resting on the bed. The last few days the two of them had spent in a love infused fog as their bodies slowly recovered enough to fill their physical desires for each other. Raynor remembered that for the most part Kerrigan had had to do most of the work since his body hadn't fully recovered yet and he was amazed at the things that lithe body could do and was eager to return the favor. "Hmm? Something you want, missy?" he asked playfully.

Kerrigan climbed her way on top of him until he laid down on the bed, her breasts brushing his chest as she straddled him. Kerrigan suddenly squealed as Raynor flipped the two of them over so that he was on top and she looked at him in surprise. Raynor's only response was to grin as he began to kiss down her neck and between her breasts, a low moan coming from her throat as he continued his way down her stomach. She eagerly began to tug at his shirt until he removed it along with his pants before the two of them lost themselves in the fog once again.

Some time later the two of them laid not moving on the bed, Raynor still on top but both of them out of breath. Kerrigan recovered first and muttered into his ear. "Well that was something new. Where'd that energy come from? Don't tell me I've been doing all the work for nothing these past few days."

Raynor chuckled through heavy breathing. "Trust me darling, that's nothing compared to what I can do when I'm not a cripple."

"I look forward to it then. You're amazing already so I can't wait to see what you can do when you're back to your old self." Raynor lifted himself off of Kerrigan with his arms and rolled over onto his back, still recovering from the exertion. Kerrigan scooted over and rested her head on his chest, feeling the strength she was so used to return with almost every breath he took. After a few minutes Raynor rolled off the bed and began to get dressed again as Kerrigan began to get her own clothes from the dresser and put them on. Raynor put his usual white shirt, brown vest, and blue jeans back on and stamped his feet into his boots before he headed for the doorway as Kerrigan finished pulling on one of the shirts Yohan had provided for her. A white T-shirt with a rose starting at her left breast with the stem wrapping around to end at the bottom right of her shirt. Raynor turned to look at his girl appreciatively and could only shake his head at the wonder that a gal like that would fall for a washed up soldier like him. Kerrigan noticed him looking and gave him a short dance before heading over to join him at the door. "Ready?"

Raynor took her hand in his and walked out the door as they headed towards the main part of the lab where Yohan spent most of his time. As the two arrived they saw Yohan working at a console with a new arrival, a young blond man with a slender figure and wearing a lab coat similar to Yohan's over a civilian Dominion uniform. "Who's this, Doc?" Raynor asked as they approached.

Yohan looked up from his work and blinked a few times behind his glasses. "Oh, this is Tom Barkley. He's my assistant. He's actually the one who kept an eye on you while hooked up to the machines the first night and made sure your body didn't give in to the side effects."

"Ah. Well then I owe you a debt of gratitude, friend. My name is Jim Janeswell, pleasure to meet you." Raynor said as he put his hand out for a handshake that Barkley took hesitantly.

"I just followed the doctor's orders. Really it was that suit of yours that kept you alive for the most part. Marvelous feat of engineering that was. Whatever happened to that suit?" Barkely asked, in an accent that almost painted him as directly from Korhal, as he turned towards Yohan.

The doctor blinked before responding. "Well, I recycled it. We had to crack it open to get him out of it so it wasn't exactly salvageable ya know?" Barkley thoughtfully nodded as Raynor looked askance at Yohan, wishing he'd been able to prevent his suit from being destroyed.

"Well, thank you for working so hard to keep Jim around, Mr. Barkley. It means a lot," Kerrigan said as she stepped forward to grab Raynor's hand again. "Now if you'll excuse us, we thought we'd explore the lab for a bit and get this tub of lard from getting soft." Kerrigan playfully slapped Raynor's hard stomach, the solid thump her hand made on contact belaying her words.

"Ah! Actually I have something I would like to show you. Tom, if you'll be ok here I'll show our guests around for a bit." Yohan said. Barkley nodded and Yohan led Raynor and Kerrigan away into the interior of the lab. Once out of earshot he began talking again, "As you two must have figured out, Tom is a good man but he's not exactly on your side. He's quite taken in with the ideals our Emperor has been known to espouse and sees anything that goes against the Dominion almost as a holy enemy including the two of you. So if he ever finds out just who you are we might be in trouble."

Kerrigan nodded, "I heard the accent. It sounds like he was practically indoctrinated on Korhal. Might have been in fact. Wouldn't be the first time Mensk has neurally resocialized someone non-military."

Yohan blinked as he pondered what she had said. "You know, I had never thought about that but you could be correct. He showed up almost straight from Korhal on assignment to help one of the local research centers but he wasn't there long. He fairly quickly began moving from independent researcher to researcher helping in various aspects. Can't fault his work, that's for sure but you do have a point there. That might have been his purpose all along. Keep tabs on us scholarly types."

Raynor voiced his agreement, "It's you types that normally see through his smoke screen of media coverage after all." Yohan blinked a few times before sadly nodding in agreement as he led them down the hallway. After reaching a seemingly unused storage room with a key code lock once again, Yohan began entering key presses so fast that Kerrigan was unable to track the numbers pressed but she estimated that it was a ten digit number. She looked at him in surprise considering the lock that had been on their own door earlier. Just what was in here? As the door slid open Kerrigan felt out with her psionic powers but didn't sense anything out of the ordinary inhabiting the room and it wasn't until the lights flickered on in the room that she realized what was in there. Storage upon storage container lined the walls, many with markers signifying military grade munitions as well as biochemical items.

"What the hell?" Raynor asks as he looks around at the storage area. "You planning a war or something, doc?"

Yohan shook his head. "Nothing like that. For the most part these are all items that were already here and simply surplus. Well…not here here but around the various research facilities. I simply…acquired them by adding them to various shipments of regular equipment." Yohan walked over to a container marked as filled with weapons and flipped it open, revealing a selection of outdated weapons and other equipment. Raynor approached and ran an eye over the equipment before releasing a low whistle.

"These things were outdated 10 years ago. You'd be lucky to find ammunition for half the things in here, much less the replacement parts I'm sure they'd need by now. What exactly were you planning on doing with these things?" Raynor asked Yohan, pulling an older model C-14 from the box and pulling back the slide.

Yohan shrugged. "Nothing in particular, just wanted them to not be in reach of someone with an itchy trigger finger." Kerrigan looked over at Yohan and almost thought she saw a smile play across his face but dismissed it as a catch of the light. "Besides you said it yourself, chances of being able to use these any time soon is nearly zero. But anyways that's not what I wanted to show you. It's this way." Yohan continued on towards the back and pulled open an unmarked crate. Inside was Kerrigan's hostile environment suit and combat knife along with Raynor's trusty side arm with its belt holster.

"Well I'll be damned. Thought this stuff was gone for good." Raynor said as he pulled out the pistol and dumped the empty shells out from the revolver. Kerrigan reached in and pulled out the suit, the familiar fabric feeling like a missing part of her. The two turned towards Yohan and thanked him as he nervously adjusted his glasses.

"It was all the two of you had left when you arrived, outside of the suits, and I'm afraid I really did salvage those. That black suit was simply too obviously the infamous Jim Raynor's and on a Dominion world that's just asking for trouble. Miss Kerrigan's suit there and that sidearm were relatively easy to conceal away and I figured you'd like to have them back at some point," Yohan said as he closed the container back after they had retrieved their gear.

"I appreciate it doc. If we're lucky I'll be able to scrounge up some shells for my gun here and we'll be back in business. Ain't a law around here saying no guns, is there?" Raynor asked as he fastened the holster around his waist.

Yohan shook his head. "Not likely with Dominion barracks sitting around all over like we have.'

"Good. Well, let's get ourselves set up and finish planning our rendezvous with the Hyperion." The three of them headed back out of the room with Yohan sealing the door behind them as the lights powered back off.

The next few days were relatively uneventful. Raynor managed to acquire a few boxes of shells for his gun from a local supply depot using Yohan's clearance while Yohan and Kerrigan fleshed out their plans for getting access onto the Hercules class transport that was coming soon. The plan they currently had was fairly simple. Get to the spaceport, line up for entrance, and take a seat. But Kerrigan knew things never went according to plan and she began to hash out contingencies with the doctor. Surprisingly the doctor was a step ahead of her on a few points and had a few contingencies of his own to describe and Kerrigan was impressed with his advice involving her own plans. She quite quickly began to realize the doctor wasn't simply a back country medic and started wondering just what was going on in that head of his.

The day before the planned escape she decided to take a peek at what was going on, hopefully without being noticed. As she reached out towards the doctor's mind she was surprised at just how easily she got inside, but once there she quickly withdrew. Inside his head was something she had never felt before: nothing. A human mind always had stray thoughts floating through but inside Yohan's there was simply…nothing. No thoughts, no emotions, simply emptiness and that terrified her. She quickly released her psionic powers just before Yohan turned to look over at her and smile, seemingly none the wiser as to him just having his mind probed. Kerrigan nervously smiled back and left, heading back to her and Raynor's room to finish packing, thoughts swirling through her own head.

The next day Raynor and Kerrigan woke up early to prepare. Raynor unloaded, cleaned, and reloaded his gun before even getting dressed as Kerrigan zipped up her hostile environment suit before putting on her layers of warm clothing provided by Yohan. As Raynor pulled on his clothes she walked over behind him and wrapped her arms around his chest, feeling his warmth through the back of his vest. "Nervous, darling?" he asked as he placed a few shells into the slots designed for them on his vest.

"No…yes…well, a little of both. I'm nervous about something going wrong but I'm not nervous about us being able to handle it. The two of us make a hell of a team after all," she replied.

"That we do. Now let's go check on the good doctor." Raynor pulled on his own warm jacket and they walked out the door, almost running into Yohan who appeared about to knock.

The old man took a step back and blinked behind his glasses. "Ah. Good. You're already up and ready. Well then, shall we?" he asked and gestured towards the front entrance of the lab. They made their way past the main control room and out into the waiting area where they stopped at the site of Barkley nervously standing off to the side of the room, hopping from foot to foot apparently unable to stay still. "Tom? What are you doing here so early?" Yohan asked the younger man.

Kerrigan sensed it before it came and began moving before Raynor or Yohan had a chance to react, pulling the two of them back down the hallway as the front door exploded off its hinges, spraying the room with a blast of cold and steel as fragments rained down. Red suited marines began rushing in through the gap as the commanders barked orders, a slender blonde woman in the lead. "Team 2, main entrance secured. Proceed as planned."

By now both Yohan and Raynor had recovered and were running full tilt behind Kerrigan, Yohan surprising all of them by matching pace and even taking the lead. "There's a back exit down this way, follow me!" he called as he took a side hallway, Raynor and Kerrigan right on his heels. As they approached another hatchway it suddenly blasted in as well, sending another wave of cold and metal shards flying through the air. Yohan skidded to a halt but Raynor charged past, pulling his revolver from its holster and blasting the first marine through the door, dropping him with a neat hole in the visor.

"Keep moving!" he bellowed as Kerrigan suddenly appeared at his side, her long combat knife reaching for and sliding home under an armored arm and into the marine inside the suit, eliciting a yell as the soldier dropped his rifle. Raynor blasted and bullied his way through the squad as Kerrigan slipped through like a cat, blasting soldiers out of her way with kinetic force whenever their path seemed to almost close. Yohan followed in their wake, marveling at the destructive power the duo had until they burst out into the snow, the disorganized and demoralized squad left behind in the lab. Without looking back Yohan, Raynor, and Kerrigan sprinted off into the snow as bullets whizzed past their heads until they were lost to sight.


	8. Zerg

**Chapter 7**

**Zerg**

Raynor crunched yet another hole in the snow with his boot as he trekked through the snow, his feet rapidly freezing as snow snaked its way in through the top and sides of his boots. He had dressed for walking down the maintained streets of the research base, not untamed snowdrifts out in the open. Raynor took his eyes off the never-changing ground and looked around, checking their surroundings before he turned around to talk to Yohan who was a few steps behind him, "You know where we're going, right doc?"

The doctor took out his transponder and double checked their heading. "Yes, we're still going the right way. It's just…quite a distance still."

"Well, if we pick up the pace we won't be so damn cold I bet." Raynor said and matched actions to words as he stepped out at a slightly brisker walk. He moved up next to Kerrigan and peaked inside her hood. "Doing ok, darling?"

Kerrigan smiled, "Between the clothes and my hostile environment suit I'm doing just fine. You're probably in a bit worse shape considering you don't have that bushy beard of yours to break the wind off your face anymore." Raynor chuckled and looked forward again. As time passed Raynor realized Yohan wasn't directly behind him anymore. Raynor looked around and realized Yohan had fallen a ways behind so Raynor caught Kerrigan's arm to slow her down. "Looks like our resident old man used up all his energy already. Let's give him a breather."

Kerrigan and Raynor slowed their pace until Yohan caught up, his eyes firmly placed on the ground causing him to almost walk into them, stumbling just short as he realized how close he had gotten. After a few blinks behind his glasses he looked between Raynor and Kerrigan and sighed. "You two shouldn't have to wait for an old man. Here, take the transponder and get yourselves to the spaceport." Yohan attempted to hand the small handheld machine to Raynor but he simply pushed it back.

"I wouldn't even know how to work that thing. Besides you saved our lives so there's no way I'm leaving you behind. I'll carry you this time if I have to," Raynor said.

Yohan grinned thankfully, "That won't be necessary. Let's keep going, eh?" The three set out again with Raynor and Kerrigan taking the lead once again, but not by as far a margin as before. Some time went by and according to Yohan they were about halfway to the spaceport, a solid 20 to 30 minutes left. Raynor turned to check on the doctor and saw an outline in the falling snow. Something was obstructing their path but whatever that something was, Raynor couldn't tell. After a few seconds of staring at the oddity, Raynor realized he was looking at a cloaked Ghost and he moved without thinking, diving into Kerrigan and knocking her to the ground as a lone rifle shot echoed out across the snow, the bullet speeding over their heads by inches. As they fell Raynor yanked his pistol from its holster around his waist and blind fired towards where he had seen the outline, emptying the chamber in a single go. A gasp came from the outline and the cloaked form shimmered as it began running away, suggesting Raynor had scored a lucky hit.

Raynor pulled the trigger on the empty revolver a few times as the retreating outline disappeared from view, continuing using his eyes to search for anymore threats. As Kerrigan climbed back to her feat Raynor walked over to where he had first seen the shimmer and saw a rife lying next to a pair of footprints that lead off into the distance rapidly being filled by the falling snow. A sound from behind him caused Raynor to spin around with the empty revolver pointing at whatever the threat could be until he realized it was Yohan pulling himself up from the hole in the snow he had made upon diving to the ground when he heard the gunshots. Raynor shook himself to steady his nerves and picked the rifle up off the ground and carrying it to Kerrigan. "Look, I got you a present."

Kerrigan took the rifle and smiled as she checked the mechanical parts and ammo supply. "Just what a gal wants. A ruffian bringing her a new gun. Whatever happened to roses and chocolates?"

"Too boring. You can get those anywhere," Raynor replied with a grin of his own as he reloaded his revolver. "By the way, how come you didn't sense this one coming?"

Kerrigan strapped the rifle to her back and looked over at Raynor, "Because they're good. Whoever that was was masking their psionic signature to a point that I couldn't detect it. It only dropped for a few seconds when they got shot, I assume the hit threw off their concentration just for an instant. All I managed to grasp was that they were wounded though. I couldn't get any more than that."

Yohan made his way towards them with a grim look on his face and looking at his transponder that was making a strange beeping sound. "We have a problem. A flash-freeze is on its way and it's not going to go well for us out here in the open. An exposed human body can't handle the cold and will simply shut down, the blood freezing solid and all, ya know?" the doctor said as he arrived.

Raynor and Kerrigan shared a look and she quickly gathered her energy and cast out a type of net around them, searching for any kind of shelter they could find. Not too far away she picked up a faint psionic signature but she couldn't tell if it was faint because it was weak or because it was being masked, even so she mentioned it to the other two.

"Well, a psionic anything typically means life of some sort so if there's someone living out here I assume they have a way to shelter themselves. And if it's that Ghost we just ran into then I expect at the very least she has a dropship coming in to pick her up. With any luck we can hijack it and get ourselves out of danger," Yohan said. Raynor and Kerrigan agreed and they headed towards where she had sensed the signature, her senses still set on maximum gain attempting to figure out what they were walking into before they got there, Yohan's transmitter giving louder and louder warnings indicating the imminent arrival of the flash-freeze.

Raynor took the lead, his reloaded revolver out and looking for targets, until the terrain under the snow changed texture and he raised a hand to signify a stop. He knelt down and cleared away some of the snow to reveal a purplish, spongy substance underneath. "Creep…" Raynor backed away and turned to the other two. "There's Creep under this snow. Don't ask me how or why but it's here and it's not dead or it would have retreated by now. We've got to find another place."

Just at that moment Yohan's transponder beeped a loud warning, indicating that the flash-freeze was mere minutes away from their location. "We don't have time to find somewhere else, Jim. Besides whatever I'm sensing is dormant at the very least and there's only the one. If it is Zerg then it can't be any more than a single structure of some kind. A structure we should be able to hide in temporarily," Kerrigan said as she moved past Raynor.

Raynor almost couldn't believe his ears, "Now hold up there, hide in? Are you suggesting we climb inside a Zerg? A still living Zerg?"

Kerrigan called over her shoulder, "Any better idea? If you prefer we can freeze out here." Raynor muttered a curse as Yohan followed her and then a louder one as he did the same just a few steps behind. As they approached through the snow the three were finally able to make out the structure, a large fleshy mound with four exits on the side that sloped up to a claw like orifice on the top. "Aw damn…It's a hatchery." Raynor cursed.

Kerrigan approached the structure and placed a hand on the side, feeling the dormant life still continuing inside the structure and psionicly delved into it. "Something made this building resilient to the cold. The flash-freezes have no effect but its last order was to lay low and so it has...for years now. It's simply waiting for instructions to wake up."

"Well let's not wake it up then and just cut it open so we can get inside." Raynor said, stepping forward to look for an easy way to slice into it with their limited materials.

Yohan stepped forward and shook his head. "No, if we do that we defeat the purpose of climbing inside by opening it to the outside. Why not just climb in through the openings here at the bottom where the larvas usually come out?" he pointed towards the base of the hatchery at the openings that were just large enough for a Terran to slide inside.

"Aw…damn. I am not going to enjoy this…" Raynor muttered as he knelt down to look in the hole. "Well, better get this over with," he said and started to wedge his shoulders into the opening, barely fitting through the opening but once inside there was at least enough room to sit up but Raynor couldn't tell just how much room without a light source. "Alright, might as well get you two in here as well." Raynor calls out and he heard the sound of someone following along the same path he took. The second person slid through without much trouble and Raynor assumed it to be Kerrigan, his opinion was confirmed as a thin body pressed up against his in the confined space, her breathing practically in Raynor's ear. "Ok, maybe this won't be so bad after all," he mutters as he feels down Kerrigan's back and playfully pinches her bottom. With a gasp she smacks out towards Raynor and catches him on the arm as Yohan slides his own way inside, his transponder giving off a final warning before going silent.

"It's here…" Yohan muttered, nervousness setting in at the improvised plan. The wind outside picked up in intensity and suddenly the hatchery sealed shut the openings the three had crawled through, cutting their access to the outside. Raynor reached for his gun but Kerrigan intercepted him.

"No need, Jim. That's just part of how the hatchery survives the cold. It locks all heat inside and prevents the cold from penetrating its interior," she says and she felt Raynor relax his stiff body but only a little, his every instinct most likely calling for him to cut his way out as rapidly as he could. Kerrigan smiled to herself in the dark and leaned back into Raynor, feeling his once again strong arms wrap themselves around her and she closed her eyes to wait, almost forgetting that there was a third person wedged up against the opposite wall. As the seconds past she began to feel something tugging at her, attempting to get her attention almost like a call for help. She concentrated on the tugging and opened up a small portion of her mind to the call. Kerrigan connected with the hatchery and quickly realized what was going on. As soon as she connected, however, she felt more tugs as more and more minds were added into the one connection Kerrigan had made. She gasped as the tugs became more urgent and a hubbub of voices and thoughts swirled through her head, none of them her own. Unrealized by those inside, the hatchery began to wake up to prepare itself for orders, having finally sensed a higher mind willing to communicate

After a few minutes a single voice managed to break through the rest, _Our Queen has returned! Your leviathan is on its way my Queen. We will be there within the hour._ Kerrigan fought to close the link and with a final gasp she succeeded, shutting the invading thoughts out of her head. As she slowly returned to reality she heard Raynor calling to her but as if through a glass window, but the concern clear in his tone. She reached out a hand towards him but was unable to find him without being aware why until a hand found her own and she felt rough calluses wrap around her fingers. With a pop thought and sound returned and she remembered just where they were. She squeezed Raynor's hands with her own and murmured, "I'm ok sweetie. Honest."

Raynor was unconvinced but he leaned back against the interior wall of the hatchery as Kerrigan sat back up from where she had apparently laid down on the floor as far as the space would let them. "What happened? You suddenly gasped and almost started convulsing. Yohan and I had to keep you locked down so you wouldn't bang yourself up in here," Raynor asked.

Kerrigan shrugged in the dark. "I'm not sure," she lied, "but it might just be being so close to a latent psionic signal"

Yohan frowned to himself, confident that no one could see him in the dark. He knew something like that wasn't possible but he couldn't simply call her out on it. He just wished he knew why she would lie. A thought occurred to him and he reached a hand behind him to feel the wall and his suspicion was confirmed. "You woke up, didn't you?" Yohan asked Kerrigan quietly.

"I…don't know what you're talking about," she replied. Yohan simply nodded to himself and let his hand fall down to his side. This had always been a fear in the back of his head ever since he saw her for the first time but his code as a doctor wouldn't let him simply let her die. With any luck she was in control of herself even if she was connected with Zerg but that was still one chance he would rather not have to take.

Yohan's transponder beeped once again to signify the passing of the flash-freeze and the winds outside died down quickly just as the openings on the hatchery opened back up to let a modicum of light back in. Yohan was the last one in so he was the first one out, digging out through the snow drift that had piled up against the hatchery. Just as he was exiting the structure he heard a yell shortly followed by a gunshot. He scrambled out of the way as Kerrigan smoothly snaked her way out of the hatchery followed by Raynor's large frame as it squeezed out almost directly behind her. Once outside Raynor stood up and wiped a dash of blood from his arm before putting his gun back in its holster. "I felt somethin' moving and I may have overreacted. But being inside that thing is a nightmare to me I'd much rather burn the damn thing so sorry if I'm a bit jumpy."

Yohan noticed a black, crawling thing began snaking its way up Raynor's back and towards his head and was about to call out, being stopped by Kerrigan's hand on his shoulder as she stealthily reached forward to snake a hand forward and plucked the Zerg larva from Raynor's back without him noticing, tossing it back towards the hatchery before Raynor turned around to look at them. "Anyways, we should get…aw shit…" Raynor stopped talking and Yohan and Kerrigan turned to look behind them as well and saw what he had, the red forms of Dominion Marines appearing through the snow. Kerrigan picked the rifle up from the ground where she had left it before the flash-freeze and leveled it at the oncoming targets.

"Darling, now's not the time for that," Raynor said as he pointed towards her chest. Kerrigan looked down and slowly lowered her rifle at the sight of a red dot hovering squarely on her breast. With a muttered curse she let the rifle muzzle lower towards the ground.

A shimmering of the air appeared a few meters away and a blonde haired woman with a blood soaked bandage around her right arm and carrying no weapon appeared from thin air as she disabled her cloak, a smirk of victory on her face. "Hello, Kerrigan, Raynor. In case you don't remember, my name is Nova and I'm here to take you back to Mensk. He was unclear on how he wanted you, so if you come peacefully you'll at least make it alive. Perhaps not in one piece, but alive." Fury boiled up inside Kerrigan and she began to summon up enough psionic energy to crush the blonde woman in front of her but suddenly felt another presence in her mind, the hatchery had sensed her danger and was letting her know the status of its troops. Kerrigan signaled for them to attack and from around the Dominion forces chaos erupted as previously hibernating Zerglings dug themselves up out of the snow with a screech as they launched themselves headlong into the marines.

The soldiers were caught completely off guard and many were annihilated before they could level their weapons. Nova spun around at the sound of the Zerg and Kerrigan took her chance to launch a kinetic force into her back. Nova flew through the air at the sudden force and the landing knocked the wind out of her. She had to take a few seconds to regain her strength and once she did she looked around at her screaming and dying marines as Zerglings tore them apart. With a curse she enabled her cloak and sprinted off into the snow.

The few Dominion marines that were left broke and ran, the Zerglings chasing them down and taking them out one by one until Kerrigan called them back. Kerrigan looked around at the lone Zerg area and smiled to herself. Out of habit she sent a "thanks" through her link to the surrounding Zerg and was surprised to get a sense of pleasure back along the link. She wasn't aware that Zerg could show emotion, especially being pleased by something. She shook her head and managed to convince herself it was nothing but a trick of her own imagination. Zerg didn't have feelings, they simply couldn't.

Kerrigan turned to look at the other two with her and almost laughed at the look of shock on their faces. "What, didn't think I had it under control? Come on boys you have to learn to trust me sometimes," she joked.

"Darling, let's not have to count on your Zerg anymore than we have to, ok?" Raynor said after he had recovered from the surprise, concern lacing his voice. Kerrigan gently smiled at him and nodded. A voice suddenly filled her head once again, the same one that had broken through earlier.

_My Queen! Your leviathan has arrived. Overlords are on their way in to pick you up._ Kerrigan spun around, looking for the source of the voice even though she knew she wouldn't find it.

"Oh boy…" she muttered as she turned towards the other two. "Um…well guys I believe I found our way off this rock but I don't think you're going to like it." Kerrigan cut off as a large shape appeared overhead, tentacles reaching down from its belly towards them.

Raynor simply looked at Kerrigan, a look of defiance on his face. "Sarah, no. This is a bad bad idea."

"I don't know, Jim. If the Dominion managed to track us this far they must know where we're headed. That could mean they have the spaceport completely under their control and we could never get off that way now," Yohan chimed in thoughtfully, looking up at the large creature.

"Besides, you have any better ideas? I can control these Zerg so now's our best chance to escape and I can guarantee no harm will come to anyone," Kerrigan said, looking Raynor directly in the eyes. With a sigh Raynor relented but his hand nervously kept its grip on the butt of his revolver as the Overlord descended low enough for them to be lifted into its holding sacs. Raynor couldn't hide his apprehension as he, Kerrigan, and Yohan were transported up and out into space. He feared they had simply walked out of the frying pan and into the fire.


	9. Leviathan

_Author's note: Sorry it took so long to get this chapter up. Midterm exams are coming up and I've been focusing on those for the most part. Also, it's 3am here so I tried to proofread through it all but if I missed anything feel free to let me know and I'll fix it. _

_As always, read and review :)_

**Chapter 8**

**Leviathan**

Raynor had never been inside a living Overlord before hadn't even explored a dead one for that matter. For the most part a dead Zerg was a good Zerg as far as he was concerned. The Ventral Sacs were not designed for Terran bodies but the Zerg it usually transported were large enough that space wasn't a concern but it was far from comfortable. It didn't help that for Raynor having nothing but a fleshy exterior preventing the void of space from boiling his blood was a nerve wracking experience. He'd prefer solid steel any day of the week. Raynor felt a slim hand slide into his own and looked down to see Kerrigan's smiling face at his side, reassuring him that as long as she was there nothing bad was going to happen.

After some time the three of them arrived at the Leviathan and the Overlord dropped them off in what Raynor guessed was a type of hanger, there for exit and entrance to the Leviathan for transport vehicles. Kerrigan began tugging on Raynor's hand and led him off in what seemed to him to be a random direction, Yohan following not far behind with his eyes nervously shifting behind his glasses as if looking for an ambush. "Hold up there, darling. Where are you going?" Raynor asked Kerrigan as she leads him through a type of fleshy doorway.

"The nerve center if I'm not mistaken. I'm…well I seem to remember this particular Leviathan and as long as I'm correct I'll be taking us straight to the 'bridge' of this beast," Kerrigan replied as they began traveling up a type of spiraling ramp. Once they reached the top Raynor looked out into a large room with what looked like a viewport out into space. A serpentine figure dropped down from the ceiling before them and began talking.

"Welcome, my Queen. No matter your form I would recognize your psionic signature wherever you might be. It is a pleasure to serve you once again. However I do have to wonder what these Terrans are doing with you. Are they your pets, perhaps? I hear Terrans keep lower lifeforms as pets so I can see how you might be interested in doing the same," the figure says. Raynor bristles at being called a pet but Kerrigan steps forward and defuses him with a look.

"You're…Izsha correct? I'm sorry but it has been quite some time since I was a part of the Swarm so I'm a bit hazy on things here. How did you find me?"

"It was simple, my Queen. The hatchery we found you at had been planted by this very Leviathan and once it connected with you it simply followed its instincts and sent that information to its parent, which I'm connected to. I recognized your signature through the connection and we warped into space above that planet as quickly as we could."

"Well thank you for the pick-up. It was getting rather hot down there for a cold planet," Kerrigan says before continuing, "I have to tell you I'm not your Queen anymore. I'm not who I used to be and I don't plan on becoming that bloodthirsty being ever again. However it seems that I can't simply let the Swarm run free. We were attacked by an errant brood, but it seemed far too organized to be simply running lose. Have you any knowledge of this?"

Izsha nods before answering. "It was most likely the broodmother Zagara leading that particular brood. She's been working in this area for quite some time, attempting to gather Zerg without leaders to herself and enough resources to start her own Swarm. With the abundance of feral Zerg in this sector she's been quite busy building herself a larger brood. She has even managed to gather a few fellow broodmothers under her command."

"We can't let this continue, Sarah. Who knows how many Terran world's she's ransacked to get their measly mineral lines and vespene geysers," Raynor says as he steps forward.

Izsha is surprised to hear the Terran speak, "My Queen is quite lenient with her 'pets.' Perhaps I misunderstand the relationship?" she asks quizzically.

"They're not my pets, they're my friends and comrades," Kerrigan points to Raynor, "I owe this man more than I could ever repay," she points to Yohan, "and this man saved my life and was forced to leave his home because of it. It's not a concept I expect you to understand at this moment but understand that you will stop referring to them by anything other than their names. Jim Raynor and Chuck Yohan. And they are not to be harmed in any way."

Izsha looks over at the two Terrans impassively and nods her head. "As my Queen wishes. Terrans Raynor and Yohan shall not be harmed by anyone aboard this Leviathan.

Kerrigan nods her approval and then turns to the other two Terrans. "Now then, you two should be able to settle down a little bit and Jim can let his trigger finger take a rest from tapping on the side of his gun." Raynor looks down and realizes his hand had a death grip on the grip of his revolver and consciously made his hand relax and drop down to his side. Kerrigan gives him a reassuring smile and continues, "Alright. So now that we're off that planet I believe we owe Yohan a free trip to wherever he wishes to go. We uprooted him from his planet and research facility so it's only fair we find him somewhere else to live. Perhaps one of the border worlds where Raynor's Raiders are favored?"

Yohan shakes his head. "My dear, when I saved the two of you from freezing to death I signed on for the long haul and I knew that. I'm here to stay and I'm afraid you're just going to have to deal with that," Yohan smiles at her and Raynor before adjusting his glasses.

Kerrigan smiles inspite of herself and Raynor claps a hand on the older man's shoulder. "Wouldn't have it any other way, partner," Raynor says. "Now my suggestion is we rendezvous with the Hyperion, wherever it got to, and start preparing our fight against the Dominion. We have quite a lot of work ahead of us if we want to get enough support to overthrow Mensk."

"About that…I think we have a head start already Jim. We now have the Zerg with us or at least the ability to. Imaging having a Zerg army working with us to clear the way through the Dominion defenses and opening up Mensk's palace and compare it to having to use Terran forces to do the same thing," Kerrigan says.

Raynor looks over at her, worry etched on his face. "Hold up missy. Since when were the Zerg part of our plan? Who says we can trust these Zerg to stay on our side and not just slaughter every Terran they see? Not to mention who knows what could happen if you start trying to control them all once again. I'm not going to lose you to the Queen of Blades again."

Yohan put forward his own objections. "Not only that, but I don't think only the Terrans will be bothered by a revived Swarm. Once the Protoss learn of the revival of the Queen of Blades they're bound to come hunting us down and I highly doubt they'd believe explanations as to why there's a Terran controlling the Zerg now."

Kerrigan brushed their objections aside. "Jim, nothing is going to happen to me. I'm in total control of myself. And the Zerg don't exactly have plans to rebel anytime soon. Not the ones under my control anyways. And Chuck, you have a valid point but I think the Protoss will realized I'm not who I used to be. Besides, wasn't it Zeratul who said they needed me and the Swarm?" Kerrigan looks them both in the eyes before continuing, knowing that she had to convince them here if she wanted their support. "Besides, what's better? These rampant Zerg swarms running around under the control of murderous broodlords or a combined Swarm under my, or should I say our, control?"

Raynor and Yohan shared a look and Raynor sighed as Yohan took his glasses off to clean them on his shirt. "Alright you've made your point. I'm with ya," Raynor said after a time, "But I can't say I'll ever be able to be fully trusting of these Zerg even with you in control." Yohan nods his agreement, replacing his glasses and blinking a few times as Raynor continued. "However, I agree only on one condition, we meet back up with the Hyperion first. I have to check on my men before we do anything."

Kerrigan smiled her thanks and turned back to Izsha. "Alright, we've got our plan so now it's your turn. Heard anything about a large Terran Battlecruiser around these parts?"

The creature shook its head. "No, my Queen. We've been rather disconnected since we aren't controlled by any broodmother and exist only to serve the Queen. Our forces are rather small as well so if you plan on bringing the errant broodmothers under your control might I suggest we recover a feral brood from a nearby planet? The broodmother that was controlling it was killed by Protoss on the planet and now they're simply wondering around the planet or freezing in place."

Kerrigan looked at Izsha strangely. "Freezing? Another cold planet?"

"Yes, and it suffers from something called 'flash-freezes' by the Terrans. Very similar to the planet we pulled you off of, my Queen."

"Wonderful…" Kerrigan heard Raynor mutter behind her and she smiled.

Izsha continues, "Might I suggest a visit to Abathur before we continue? I'm sure he'd be more than happy to offer his own assistance in this matter and he's better suited to talk about what is needed to make your future plans a success. He's probably down in the evolution pit."

Kerrigan nodded and began to head that way, Raynor and Yohan following along once again. As Kerrigan led them down another spiral like ramp Raynor and Yohan began to feel slightly less ill-at-ease considering the amount of time they had spent on the vessel and hadn't been attacked. Maybe they did have a chance at this after all. Raynor began to think of all the things a Zerg Swarm under control of a non-bloodthirsty mind could accomplish but quickly squelched that thought. As soon as the Swarm had lost its usefulness, he would get Kerrigan to come back with him and leave all Zerg behind, have them kill themselves off if nothing else worked.

Eventually the ramp leveled off into an expansive room with various Zerg and non-Zerg creatures splayed out in various areas as if in the process of being experimented on. From the ground a multi armed and legged creature pulled itself from a smoky hole with an eerie green light filtering out and Raynor took a step back, reaching for his gun. The creature's mouth, if you could call it that, seemed to be dripping a type of acid and its arms moved spasmodically as if searching for something to grasp. Raynor felt Kerrigan's hand on his gun arm and he relaxed his grip only a little, keeping his hand on the butt ready for a quick draw.

"Abathur, I assume?" Kerrigan asked as she released Raynor.

The creature nodded. "Yes. Am called Abathur. Good to have Queen back. But Queen damaged. Inferior. Will fix." The creature reached its arms forward but was stopped as cold metal suddenly appeared in front of him, the barrel of a revolver lodged in his mouth with Raynor holding the other end.

"Not today, spindly," he said as he cocked the revolver back. Kerrigan reached forward and placed a finger between the hammer of the revolver and the chamber, preventing it from firing. She gave Raynor a stern look and he reluctantly pulled the gun back but kept it held in his hand.

"No, Abathur. I stay the way I am so keep your hands off of me," Kerrigan said to the creature.

Abathur nodded and then turned to Yohan. "What about this one. Can have? Interesting make up. Good experimentation possibilities for Terran."

Kerrigan shot the old doctor a look but he seemed completely absorbed in observing a Zerg carcass lying nearby. She shook her head and returned to Abathur. "No, not him. Neither of them are to become part of your experiments," a thought occurred to her, "however, I believe there is a hatchery down on the planet we just left that you might like. It seems to have adapted to survive through flash-freezes. A trait that could come in useful later on."

Abathur was silent for a moment. "Will do. Interested to see who modified. Not easy to adapt Zerg."

Kerrigan chuckled. "Jealous, are we? Well whatever it is or whoever they did us a favor so use it."

"Yes my Queen." Abathur said and disappeared back down into the hole to carry out her orders. Kerrigan turned back to the other two and smiled disarmingly at Raynor who finally put his gun back in its holster but his attitude showed he was tiring of their situation quickly. Kerrigan once again looked over Yohan but sees nothing physical that would interest a creature like Abathur. Her curiosity got the better of her and she reached out psionicly to probe into his mind. Nothing too deep simply a surface scan to see what was there. As soon as her psionic tendril touched Yohan's mind she physically recoiled as she pulled the connection. Inside Yohan's head was…nothing. No stray thoughts, no skittering emotions, simply nothing. It wasn't like she was running into a mental wall it was almost like the person Chuck Yohan didn't exist and a black hole existed where his mental thoughts should be.

Raynor reached out a hand to steady her but she pushed him back and stood up on her own, ignoring his look of worry and gathered herself to lead them back up to the nerve center where they were met by Izsha. "Welcome back my queen. Where would you like us to go?"

"The Hyperion. Last known location was the coordinates they gave us to warp to. Might as well start there," Kerrigan replied as she gave over the coordinates. Izsha nodded and the huge Leviathan began to prepare its jump through warpspace.

"It will take some time to prepare the Leviathan for jump. It took much energy to get here as quickly as we did so might I suggest you place yourselves in quarters we have prepared?" Izsha asked.

"Sleep would be good. Where are they?" Kerrigan responded.

"Down the hall to your left, my Queen. Two rooms have been established, one for the Terrans and one for yourself."

Kerrigan was secretly relieved but couldn't help but chuckle at Izsha's lack of understanding. "Well Chuck, looks like you get your own room. Jim and I will take the bigger one." Yohan nodded and headed off down the hallway, Kerrigan and Raynor following behind. After the strange experience in probing Yohan's mind she wasn't sure she could stay in the same room and not attempt to figure out the mystery as he slept. Yohan entered one room through a fleshy doorway and Kerrigan and Raynor entered the other. Inside was arranged fairly similar to quarter set up on a Terran battlecruiser but instead of steel and cloth everything was a fleshy substance. A "bed" was set up on one side with a "desk" of some sort over on the other. Near the back there was what Raynor assumed to be a bathroom but it wasn't much more than a hole in the floor that led off into God knew where. The fleshy "bed" was large enough for two people but in typical Zerg fashion no other comforts were provided.

"What's it take to get a blanket around here," Raynor joked, eliciting a smile from Kerrigan. She shrugged out of her warm outer jacket given to her by Yohan and held it up.

"Sorry, but this is probably the best you're going to get," she said. Raynor chuckled and pulled his own off, along with the pants and used the pants as a type of covering between the bed and his back while the coat worked as a blanket of sorts. Kerrigan did the same and they slid onto the bed together, Kerrigan snuggling up close to Raynor to let his heat seep in while Raynor wrapped his arms around her and kissed the top of her head, her still short red hair tickling his face where his beard was just beginning to fill back out. Despite the strange location both of them felt exhaustion taking them into the land of dreams, Raynor's last thought being he hoped he woke up in the "morning."


	10. Hyperion

_Author's Note: Ahha! finally the next chapter is up! Hope you enjoy. It's got a bit more dialogue than usual but I think that's a good thing in this case_

**Chapter 9**

**Hyperion**

Matt Horner carefully stepped over a fallen console lying on the bridge of the _Hyperion_ as he made his way over to the head of the repair crew working on the control center. The second in command of Raynor's Raiders had been through quite a lot in the last few weeks, not the least of which was losing his commanding officer, but he strived to keep it bottled up from the crew. If he wanted them to maintain their own composure, they needed to see him as they always had: cool, calm and collected. The damage caused from the Zerg ambush had been nearly catastrophic, including serious damage to their warp drive. Executing the emergency warp that they did damaged the shut off command and as soon as they dropped out of warp space the engine began overloading. The crew chief Rory Swann was forced to pull the plug on the entire set up, pulling power from the still engaged drive and frying half the electronics in the engine compartment including Swann's own mechanical arm which had to be repaired and the burns he suffered still hadn't fully healed. But the ship and crew were still alive and as long as they remained as such they would continue to fight. The repair work rapidly ate through the stored minerals they had and Horner ordered dropships of SCVs out to every nearby asteroid and planatoid to harvest whatever minerals they could and bring them back for repairs. Unfortunately the nearest asteroids were mostly simply rock with the occasional mineral deposit and not a single rich mineral vein. Just one of those and they could probably finish repairs on the ship but until they found one they were forced to continue searching further and further out. The _Hyperion's _sensors still weren't repaired so the dropships where having to search the old fashioned way, using their short ranged sensors on each individual asteroid.

Horner tapped the repair chief in charge of bridge repairs on the shoulder and the chief pulled his headset down from his ears before turning toward the commander. "Yes sir?"

"Any luck on the sensors?" Horner asked, gesturing towards the still sparking system.

The repair chief shook his head. "Not really sir. We're still digging glaive wurms from the exterior sensors and the console here has the majority of its components fried. It seems a wurm got lodged in one of the sensors and caused a feedback that multiplied back through the matrix until it hit the console."

"Any way to prevent that from happening in the future?"

The chief nodded. "I already mentioned to Swann we might want to add breakers into the repaired controls and he OK'd it as long as it doesn't delay the repair any."

"And will it?" Horner asked.

"Not more than the few minutes it takes to install. One of my mechanics designed a separate unit that works on all the controls and all you have to do is place it between the power coupling and the console."

Horner nodded. "Good work, any estimate on time left on repairs?"

"Well, that is the one bit of good news I have. As soon as the crew finishes pulling wurms from the system and once I get enough materials I should be able to repair it in just a few hours. Any clue when our next shipment of supplies is coming in?"

"Afraid not. But I'll put your request to the top of the list. Once we get these sensors set up we should be able to harvest minerals faster," Horner said. "Anyways, keep up the good work. Let me know if you need anything else."

The chief nodded and replaced his headset, calling orders into the mike as Horner walked away. Horner left the bridge but only made it to the next corner before having to lean against the wall as a wave of exhaustion caught up to him. He had been going almost non-stop ever since they dropped out of warp-space and had only managed to catch a catnap here and there between giving orders or receiving information. _I'll just close my eyes for 30 seconds and then I have to keep going. _Horner thought to himself as he did just that. Some time later he felt a familiar hand quietly begin shaking him and his eyes struggled open as he realized he was now lying on a bed, surrounded by various equipment in different stages of repair. He looked around before locking eyes with the man shaking his shoulder, Rory Swann. Horner blinked a few times before he began struggling to sit up but Swann kept his hand on Horner's shoulder to keep him in place. "Now hold up just a minute sir. You need to rest just like every other Terran here," Swann said.

"I'm fine, I promise," Horner said as he tried to sit up again.

Swann chuckled as he kept his hand in place. "If you're fine why did I find you collapsed in a corridor? When was the last time you even took time to eat?"

Horner paused and thought for a moment, "I guess it was breakfast yesterday. Had a doughnut…or something."

Swann nodded and let Horner sit up. "That's what I thought. You're lucky it was me that stumbled over you instead of some of the men. A collapsed commanding officer is not the sign of a healthy situation," Swann lifted a tray of food and a glass of water off a nearby flat surface, a broken monitor of some sort, and handed them to Horner. "Now eat and then we can get to work."

Horner took the tray of sandwiches and nodded his thanks. "How long was I out?" he asked as he took a bite out of one.

Swann shrugged. "Not sure how long before I got there but considering no one had bothered causing a ruckus about it I doubt long. I "helped" you down to this room where I spend some late nights working on repairs and set you up on the cot here that I have for those days where I don't feel like going all the way back to my own quarters. I told the crew you were catching some shut eye and if they had any problems that they could wait."

Horner looked over at Swann. "Some of those problems can't wait."

"We're still flying, aren't we? And you slept like a baby for almost 6 hours so I think they can wait."

"6 hours!?" Horner exclaimed as he set the food aside and began to climb up to his feet.

Swann stood in front of the commander and prevented him from standing up. "Hold it cowboy. Damn you're almost as bad as Raynor sometimes…you need rest and food. So eat that damn tray and then I'll let you get back to work but not before then, understand?"

Horner looked at the large figure of Swann standing over him with his new metal arm looking ready to hold him to his word and sighed. "Fine, you win," Horner said as he pulled the tray back over. Swann harrumphed and sat back down on his stool to pick up a small unit and began working on it with his tools.

Horner surprised himself and ate the entire tray of sandwiches and downed the water. Even more surprising to him was the fact that he still felt hungry like the food had simply restarted his appetite. Finally he set the tray aside and stood up as he headed for the door, stopping just before it opened and turned to Swann. "Thanks, Rory. I owe you one."

Swann chuckled. "Nah, you got us out of hell alive so call it even."

Horner smiled, "I think I'll head to the mess and get myself a little something more and see how the men are doing. Good a place as any to wait for people to know I'm back on my feet." Swann nodded and turned back to his work as Horner went out into the corridor and down the hallway towards the mess hall. He had only made it halfway to the next corridor before an alarm began ringing throughout the _Hyperion_.

"What the hell?" Horner turns around and sprints back towards the bridge, dodging around crew members and half repaired consoles and almost colliding with a marine making his way to the armory. Eventually he made it to the bridge and called for updates.

"Sensors came online a few hours ago and I set them to sweeping the area," the repair chief from earlier reported. "They just picked up a class-10 Zerg flyer entering the area."

"Class-10? A Leviathan? Damn…a whole swarm could be in that thing. What are our defenses like?" Horner asked another operator.

"Nowhere near functional sir. I can get forward batteries online but that's it and the defensive matrix is still fried. We're sitting ducks, sir," he reported as he frantically accessed the weapons console.

"Damn…Scramble fighters. Use Vikings to keep enemy flyers at bay and use Wraiths to snipe any high-priority targets that get near," Horner called and the gathered crew began following his commands but were interrupted by the comm station crackling to life.

"Now hold on, son. There's no need for that," a familiar voice came over the communication channel. Scarcely believing his ears Horner slowly turned around to face the console and almost collapsed at the face that greeted him. Jim Raynor in the flesh.

"Jim! I thought you were dead!" Horner said as he stepped up to the console.

"Takes more than an errant swarm to kill this tough old bird. Believe me, I tried," Kerrigan steps into the picture with a smile on her face.

"Sarah too? I'm glad to see both of you alive and well but we have issues. A Zerg leviathan has just entered the system and is heading straight for us. We need to get you on board and secured as quickly as possible," Horner began running over sensor logs to see where their ship was.

"Yeah…about that. Sorry son but we're actually controlling that Leviathan." Horner slowly looked back at the communications screen and took in the background behind Raynor and saw the unmistakable signs of the interior of a Zerg vessel.

"Uh…sir? You mind explaining a bit?" Horner asked, confusion plastered on his face.

"How about over a bottle of whisky in the _Hyperion's_ cantina? Been so long since I had a proper drink not sure I know what it tastes like anymore," Raynor said with a grin.

Horner paused for a minute before standing up straight and looking Raynor in the eye. "Sorry, sir, but I can't compromise the security of this ship. You arrived aboard a Zerg vessel with a person who has…ah…been known to twist people against their wills. I'm sorry but I can't allow you aboard until I can guarantee the safety of my crew. Sir."

Kerrigan looked down, understanding how Horner must feel, but Raynor simply laughed. "That's my boy! Good answer son. Things have changed since I left and I'm glad of that. It seems like you've grown up even more than I expected. Guess that happens when you think your commanding officer is KIA." Raynor stopped laughing and smiled at Horner. "Well how should we go about this? Alright how about this: You send over a dropship to bring us in, meet us in the hanger, and do whatever tests you deem necessary there to prove that we're who we say we are and not under external control?"

Horner thinks for a minute and then nods. "I can agree to that. You understand that I'll have to have a marine squad keeping eyes on you until we're sure you're…safe?"

Raynor nodded. "Understood. See you in a bit." The communication drops and Horner leaned back against a nearby console, keeping himself from simply collapsing from the shock. Jim Raynor was alive. After all the time Horner had spent accepting the fact that he was truly gone here he was showing up again. _Damn, you simply can't kill that man…_ Horner thought affectionately. He lifted himself back up and killed the alarm still ringing throughout the ship and activated the interior comm system, or whatever parts of it were working. "This is Matt Horner speaking, everyone is to stand down until further notice. We may have good news soon so keep up the good work."

Horner closed the channel and turned to a young brunette officer sitting, as stunned as he was, at a partially working console. "Jessica, would you mind getting a marine squad and a dropship prepped for me in hanger 6?" Horner asked her. Jessica Hall nodded and began punching commands into the flickering console in front of her.

Horner calmly walked down the corridors as he made his way to the hanger, lost in thought. His thoughts cycled through belief, denial, and disbelief not willing to accept the evidence of his eyes and ears. Crewmembers stepped out of his way as he came through as if sensing his mood and not wanting to cause him any more problems than he already had. Rumors spread through the ship fast and by the time he reached the hanger he could already hear people discussing the possibility of Raynor being back and how happy they were about that. He knew it shouldn't bother him but was it really that bad with him leading? He had only commanded for a few weeks but he thought he had done the best he could yet here everyone was happy at having Raynor back.

Horner shook the dark thoughts out of his head and made his way over to the prepped dropship and the marine squad, once again assuming his command presence and began giving orders to the marines.

Raynor and Kerrigan had been busy on their end as well. Raynor had gone and pulled Yohan away from his most recent research project he had started involving Izsha. Yohan's curiosity as a scientist seemed to take precedence over any worries he might have about dealing with the Zerg directly so he had spent quite a bit of time in the nerve center asking Izsha questions about various items including the driving force behind the swarm and what allowed the Leviathan to travel through warp space as easily as a Terran battlecruiser.

Kerrigan on the other hand had spent time clearing the "landing bay" of the Leviathan of as many Zerg as possible. She didn't want to give the Terrans anything to shoot at in case one got an itchy trigger finger. Eventually Raynor, with Yohan in tow, joined her in the area and Izsha informed her a Terran dropship was on its way. Kerrigan began to get nervous as she realized she was about to board a ship full of people who most likely hated her for simply being alive and she mentally curled in on herself as if to protect herself from their stares of hatred already. A warm arm slid its way around her shoulders and gave her a quick hug.

"Don't start fretting already, darling. I'm sure we'll bring 'em around to see how normal you are with us around," Raynor said, indicating himself and Yohan.

Yohan stepped forward and nervously smiled as he blinked behind his glasses. "Indeed. You are most certainly not the same as you were back then and in the time I've spent with you two I hope we have become…comrades if not friends."

Raynor clapped Yohan firmly on the back, almost knocking the older man over as Kerrigan smiled at the older man. "Of course you're our friend, Chuck. You saved our lives and there's nothing we wouldn't do to pay that back," Kerrigan said. The interior opening of the landing area spread out and allowed a Terran dropship to make its way through to land in the middle of the cleared open space.

"Our ride's here. Time to get going," Raynor said as he stepped forward, leading the party of three towards the Terran vessel. As they approached, the ramp came down and a solitary figure appeared at the top of the steps dressed in a commander's uniform. "Matt? Where are the marines?" Raynor asked, surprised at seeing his friend come alone to a Zerg ship.

The young man stepped down the stairs and up to Raynor, giving a nod to both Kerrigan and Yohan. "I told them to keep an eye on us once we got back. You wanted me to perform a test to see if you were who you said you were, so here it is. The current commander of Raynor's Raiders is in your own territory. My expectation is if something was going to happen, it was going to happen after they had me so I decided to cut to the chase. Seeing as how I'm still alive I'm cautiously optimistic that you are who you say you are after all."

Horner reached out a hand for a handshake and Raynor took it gladly, pausing before puling the young man into an embrace. "God, it's good to see you Matt." Raynor stepped back as Horner did the same, fighting back tears at the sight of his commander back alive and well.

"Welcome home, sir," he said as he motioned them toward the dropship, wiping his eyes with the back of his hand. Raynor led the three of them aboard with Yohan taking up the rear. Matt stopped Yohan at the bottom of the stairs and looked into his eyes. "You look familiar. Have we met before?"

Yohan paused and blinked a few times before responding. "Not that I know of, young man. But my name is Chuck Yohan. Pleasure to make your acquaintance."

"Pleasure is all mine. Welcome aboard," Horner responded and Yohan kept going up the ramp with Horner behind, closing the hatch behind him before making his way up to the controls. He powered up the engines and got them turned around, facing towards the exit which opened at a command from Kerrigan and they made their way out into space.

Raynor took in the state of the _Hyperion_ as they approached, whistling at the signs of damage still covering the exterior. "If the inside is anything like the outside you must have had your work cut out for you trying to repair all that damage. We didn't have much left in storage if I remember correctly so you must have been mining the surroundings bare to get any kind of repair work done."

Horner nodded as he lined the dropship up with the entrance to the hanger. "Yes sir. We've even expanded to nearby planatoids in an attempt to locate more valuable deposits of minerals. The local asteroid field is practically depleted. Nothing but hunks of space rock now."

"Would you like some drones to come over and help with heavy lifting?" Kerrigan asked offhandedly. The question threw Horner and he almost spun around to look at her, only being stopped by the fact that they were coming in to dock and he had to keep his eyes on the front.

"Nothing personal, Sarah, but Zerg simply showing up in the sector sent the ship into a panic. Having them on board is just asking for a disaster. Pardon my bluntness but it's risky taking even you aboard. If your appearance wasn't so much altered from that of the Queen of Blades I might not be able to do so at all without the crew rioting."

Kerrigan nodded as she looked out the front glass and into the hanger bay, noticing the various repair crews mostly standing around as if waiting for something. Another idea occurred to her "If you are low on materials the Leviathan has quite a large amount of them stored aboard and we can have them shipped over if you wish."

The dropship set down on the hanger floor with a slight bump and Horner powered of the engines before he responded. "That could help. We'd have to send dropships over to gather the materials since any Zerg nearing the _Hyperion_ might cause a panic of its own. Currently the majority of the dropships are out scouring for materials but we can set up a transfer schedule once they return."

Kerrigan smiled, glad to be able to offer assistance. "Make sure you pick men who won't be too bothered by being aboard a Leviathan. It's certainly quite the experience for a first timer."

Horner grinned in spite of himself. "That it is indeed. I almost couldn't go myself. I'll pick out the teams personally and make sure we won't have much of an issue as the transfer goes along." Raynor let out an amused chuckle and Horner turned to look at him, confused. "Something funny, sir?"

Raynor simply chuckled again. "Not at all, I'm just happy to see you taking charge. Not a single question asked of anyone and you made decisions and gave orders instead of offering them as suggestions to your superior. I always knew you had it in you and I'm glad to see it. It's you young ones that are the true face of this revolution after all."

Horner paused for a second and realized Raynor was right. He hadn't bothered asking anyone for commands and had simply given orders and made plans, even with his CO sitting next to him. "Sorry sir, I didn't mean to try usurping your command. It's just become a habit over the past few weeks."

Raynor shook his head. "Don't apologize son. You've done well keeping this band together over the years and these past few weeks showed you have what it takes to lead this outfit so I feel secure knowing that I have such a strong commander ready to take my place once all this is through."

"I'm honored, sir. But hopefully I can hold off on the mantle of command a bit longer now that you're back. It's not as fun as it's cut out to be."

Raynor laughed as he stood up and opened the hatch on the dropship. "You're telling me. Now then, I'll let you take care of setting up the transfer since you know what situation the various crews are in but I'll want to double check the teams you send just to be sure." Raynor poked his head out of the ship and almost ducked back inside as he was greeted by a wave of cheers from the surrounding crew. A bit stunned Raynor stepped down to the hanger floor and began greeting as many of the crew members as he could before Horner hurried him and the other two off around a corner and out of sight.

"They'll never get any work done with you out there so let's get you somewhere work doesn't need to be done. How about that drink?" Horner asked as he began leading all of them down the corridor and into the cantina. The four enter the cantina and they each order drinks, Yohan simply asking for water while the other three get their alcohol of choice. Raynor with his whiskey, Horner bourbon, and Kerrigan simply a beer. They begin talking and Raynor explains to Horner how he and Kerrigan crash landed on Braxis and fought their way through the snow and into the doctor's town, mentioning the fight with what they later found out were Ursadon and the subsequent over usage of stimpacks that almost killed him.

When Horner found out that Yohan had saved both Raynor and Kerrigan he turned to address Yohan directly. "The Raiders owe you a debt of gratitude, my friend," Horner turned back to Raynor, "You know, our chief medical officer died in the attack so if it's ok with you we could give Dr. Yohan a commission."

Raynor chuckled. "Well Chuck? What do you think?"

Yohan nervously cleaned his glasses as he responded, "No no, thank you though. I'm more of a researcher now than a doctor afterall."

"Well what about working down with Stetman? We have some interesting Zerg and Protoss specimens sitting down there that Stetman could use some help on I'm sure," Horner suggested.

Yohan looked over at Horner, intrigued. "Well that's not something you get to work on every day. Perhaps someone could point me in the direction of the lab so I can meet up with this Dr. Stetman?" Raynor called a female tech over from the bar and asked if she would escort Yohan down to the lab. The tech agreed and the two of them departed, leaving Horner, Raynor, and Kerrigan at the table.

As the older man left the other three returned to talking about their experiences since parting and were soon joined by the crew chief Rory Swann, who sat down at their table with a thud and ordered himself a pint. Pretty soon after Swann appeared various crew members who wanted to see for themselves that Raynor had returned and that the former Queen of Blades was back to looking like her old self began filing in. It didn't take much time for the cantina to fill and the comforting thrum of voices welcomed Raynor back like nothing else ever could. Swann pulled a stack of cards from a pocket and began shuffling on the table.

"How about a few rounds of poker?" Swann asked.

Kerrigan looked around for something to use as currency. "What will we use as chips?"

"Drinks. Whoever wins gets a drink of his or her choice paid for by the other three." Raynor suggested.

"Sounds good to me since we're all off duty until tomorrow. Let's get going." Horner said, taking his jacket of and resting it on the back of his chair. Swann began to deal out the cards and the four friends lost themselves in their game, laughing whenever someone managed a bluff or a straight up cheat with Kerrigan laughing as much as anyone else. Crew members began to come over and cheer on their various commanders and offering new stakes on certain hands, the brunette bridge officer even managing to steal a kiss from Matt Horner after he lost a round.

The hours dragged on and rumors began to spread as the various crews continued repair work, rumors saying that maybe the Queen of Blades wasn't so bad after all. Some of the crew even began to stop referring to Sarah Kerrigan as Queen of Blades and instead actually called her by her name which caused more crew and soldiers alike to all stop by the cantina even if just for a minute to check out the situation for themselves and to form their own opinions. Unfortunately not everyone was of the same mind. Even more people claimed Raynor was under Kerrigan's Zerg influence and that pretty soon all of them would be, and that was just one of the conspiracies that cropped up. As the night cycle on the ship began the four friends were well into their drinks and losing focus, Raynor and Swann drinking three for every one of Kerrigan's and Horner's . Eventually Raynor and Swann both wobbled over to the bathroom at the same time and a slight scuffle ensued as they couldn't both fit through the door at the same time. A tipsy Kerrigan giggled at the sight before turning back to Horner who was sporting a grin himself.

"So tell me Matt, do you think the Queen of Blades has reformed?" Horner was taken aback by Kerrigan's sudden pointed question and struggled for a response.

"Well, I believe in the commander and the commander believes in you so that's good enough for me. If he says you're an ally then I will believe him as long as there is no evidence to the contrary. And so far all I've seen is you have quite the skill at poker," He responded after a minute and with a chuckle.

Kerrigan smiled. "Thank you Matt. It means a lot to have your trust. I don't think you realize just how much Jim values your opinion. If you didn't believe in me I fear he might follow along the same path," Kerrigan paused as Raynor returned to the table and began to sit down. "Oh no you don't big fella. You've had enough to drink. Time to go to bed," she said as she climbed to her own feet and guided Raynor towards the door. As they were leaving she turned back to look at Horner and smiled her thanks again before disappearing down the hallway.

Horner sat there for a few more minutes until he realized that Swann didn't seem to be coming back and he groaned as he struggled to his feet and saw his drunken companion lying on the floor in the bathroom, fast asleep. "Of course…" Horner muttered but grinned anyways as he knelt down to help the large man back to his feet and moving towards the door. With a wave at the bartender Horner guided Swann to his quarters before trekking down to his own and getting himself ready for bed. Horner looked in the mirror of his attached bathroom and couldn't help but think that maybe tomorrow would bring a refreshing change for the weary crew of the _Hyperion_.


End file.
